Henry Rollins
He has campaigned for various political causes in the United States, including the promotion of gay rights, World Hunger Relief, the West Memphis Three, and an end to all war.[7] Rollins's paternal great-grandfather, Henach Luban, fled to the U.S. from Rēzekne, Latvia, (then part of the Russian Empire) and changed his first name to Henry."[17] Initially into hard rock acts like Van Halen[18] and Ted Nugent,[19] Rollins soon developed an interest in punk with his friend Ian MacKaye.At the time, Hanson's father was a top admiral in the U.S. Navy and his family shared living quarters with the U.S. vice president at the Naval Observatory.[18] The band was impressed with Rollins's singing and stage demeanor, and the next day, after a semi-formal audition at Tu Casa Studio in New York City, they asked him to become their permanent vocalist."[27] Before concerts, as the others of the band tuned up, Rollins would stride about the stage dressed only in a pair of black shorts, grinding his teeth; to focus before the show, he would squeeze a pool ball.[30] A legal dispute with Unicorn Records held up further Black Flag releases until 1984, and Ginn was slowing the band's tempo down so that they would remain innovative.[32] Black Flag's change in musical style and appearance alienated many of their original fans, who focused their displeasure on Rollins by punching him in the mouth, stabbing him with pens, or scratching him with their nails, among other things."[34] During the Unicorn legal dispute, Rollins had started a weight-lifting program, and by their 1984 tours, he had become visibly well-built; journalist Michael Azerrad later commented that "his powerful physique was a metaphor for the impregnable emotional shield he was developing around himself.[40] Although traumatized by Cole's death, as chronicled in his book Now Watch Him Die, Rollins continued to release new material; the spoken-word album Human Butt appeared in 1992 on his own record label, 2.13.61.In 1995 Rollins appeared on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries that explored the murder of his best friend Joe Cole[53] and presented State of the Union Undressed on Comedy Central.The show also lead to a promotional tour in Europe that led to Rollins being dubbed a "bad boy goodwill ambassador" by a NY reviewer.[59] In 2002, Rollins guest-starred on an episode of the sitcom The Drew Carey Show as a man Oswald found on eBay and paid to come to his house and "kick his ass".He co-hosted the British television show Full Metal Challenge, in which teams built vehicles to compete in various driving and racing contests, from 2002 to 2003 on Channel 4 and TLC.He has made a number of cameo appearances in television series such as MTV's Jackass and an episode of Californication, where he played himself hosting a radio show.Weston, a white supremacist gang leader and new antagonist in the show's fictional town of Charming, California, who poses a deadly threat to the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club.[67] In 2012, he hosted the National Geographic Wild series "Animal Underworld", investigating where the real boundaries lie in human-animal relationships.Harmony in my Head often emphasizes B-sides, live bootlegs and other rarities, and nearly every episode has featured a song either by the Beastie Boys or British group The Fall.[83] Rollins also inspired the characterization of Negan in The Walking Dead comic and auditioned to play the character in the television series, but eventually lost the role to Jeffrey Dean Morgan.[84] Rollins has written a variety of books, including Black Coffee Blues, Do I Come Here Often?, The First Five (a compilation of High Adventure in the Great Outdoors, Pissing in the Gene Pool, Bang!, Art to Choke Hearts, and One From None), See a Grown Man Cry, Now Watch Him Die, Smile, You're Traveling, Get in the Van, Eye Scream, Broken Summers, Roomanitarian, and Solipsist.[89][90] For the audiobook version of the 2006 novel World War Z, Rollins voiced the character of T. Sean Collins, a mercenary hired to protect celebrities during a mass panic caused by an onslaught of the undead.[72] Rollins continued to take notes of the music featured on his show, and wanted to preserve them in book form along with scans of set lists, flyers and other music-related materials he had been collecting since the 70s.[96] His spoken word style encompasses stand-up comedy, accounts of experiences he has had in the world of music and during his extensive travels around the globe, self-deprecating stories about his own shortcomings, introspective recollections from his own life (such as the death of his friend, Joe Cole), commentaries on society and playful anecdotes."[102] Rollins believes it is important that he performs for the troops so that they have multiple points of contact with other parts of the world, stating that "they can get really cut loose from planet earth."[103] He has made eight tours, including visits to bases in Djibouti, Kuwait, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan (twice), Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Honduras, Japan, Korea and the United Arab Emirates.[104] He has also been active in the campaign to free the "West Memphis Three", three young men who are believed by their supporters to have been wrongfully convicted of murder, and who have since been released from prison, but not exonerated.[citation needed] On December 3, 2009, Rollins wrote of his support for the victims of the Bhopal disaster in India, in an article for Vanity Fair[106] 25 years–to the day–after the methyl isocyanate gas leak from the Union Carbide Corporation's pesticide factory exposed more than half a million local people to poisonous gas and resulted in the deaths of 17,000 people.In a later radio interview in February 2010[107] Rollins summed up his approach to activism, "This is where my anger takes me, to places like this, not into abuse but into proactive, clean movement.[109] Rollins has stated he does not personally consume cannabis[110] but views the issue as an important matter of civil rights,[111] arguing that its illegality is based in "bigotry and racism and financing the prison–industrial complex"."[126] In December 1991, Rollins and his best friend Joe Cole were the victims of an armed robbery and shooting when they were assaulted by robbers outside their shared home in Venice Beach, California.
Wacken Open AirWashington, D.C.Hardcore punkalternative metalspoken word2.13.61Black FlagRollins BandState of AlertIndie 103The Henry Rollins Show120 MinutesSons of AnarchyA.J. WestonThe Legend of KorraZaheergay rightsWorld Hunger ReliefWest Memphis Threeend to all warRolling Stone AustraliaLA WeeklyJewishRēzekneRussian EmpireGlover ParkhyperactivityRitalinThe Bullis SchoolPotomac, MarylandAmerican UniversityNational Institutes of Healthhard rockVan HalenTed NugentIan MacKayeSex PistolsTeen IdlesBad BrainsLyle PreslarMinor ThreatDischord RecordsU.S. NavyU.S. vice presidentNaval ObservatorySecret ServiceHäagen-DazsBlack Flag (band)Nervous BreakdownChuck DukowskiDez CadenaGreg GinntattooedCuckoo's NestAnacortes, WashingtonCalvin JohnsonUnicorn Recordsheavy metal musicMy WarMichael AzerradHot Animal MachineChris HaskettDrive by ShootingBig Ugly MouthAndrew WeissSim CainLife TimeHard VolumeLollapaloozaJoe ColeHuman ButtThe End of SilenceMelvin GibbsWoodstock 94WeightBest Spoken Word RecordingDetailsThe ChaseEye ScreamJohnny MnemonicLost HighwayDreamworks RecordsCome In and BurnBlack Coffee BluesThink TankMother SuperiorGet Some Go AgainTom Green Live!Damian CowellWashington, D.C. hardcoreDamagedswing beatCharles MansonSST RecordsMark of CainIll at EaseUnsolved MysteriesComedy CentralWelcome to ParadoxMad StanBatman BeyondIndependent Film ChannelFilm24Night VisionsGary OldmanThe Drew Carey ShowFull Metal ChallengeChannel 4JackassCalifornicationThe Sundance ChannelThe Drug Yearswhite supremacistSons of Anarchy Motorcycle ClubAmerican Dad!National Geographic Explorerwarrior geneNational Geographic Wildhuman-animal relationshipsHawaii Five-010 Things You Don't Know Aboutthird seasonZ NationDeadly ClassIndie 103.1jump blues