Henry Rollins
Henry Lawrence Garfield (born February 13, 1961), known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, comedian, and presenter.[1] After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1980, Rollins fronted the California hardcore band Black Flag from 1981 to 1986. Following the band's breakup, he established the record label and publishing company 2.13.61 to release his spoken word albums, and formed the Rollins Band, which toured with a number of lineups from 1987 to 2003 and in 2006.
Henry Rollins
Henry Lawrence Garfield
February 13, 1961
Washington, D.C., U.S.
- Singer
- writer
- actor
- speaker
- presenter
- author
- comedian
- activist
1980–present
Rollins has hosted numerous radio shows, such as Harmony in My Head on Indie 103, and television shows such as The Henry Rollins Show and 120 Minutes. He had recurring dramatic roles in the second season of Sons of Anarchy as A.J. Weston, in the final 2 seasons of the animated series The Legend of Korra as Zaheer, and has also had roles in several films. 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. He currently hosts a weekly radio show on KCRW, is a regular columnist for Rolling Stone Australia, and was a regular columnist for LA Weekly.[2]
Early life[edit]
Rollins was born Henry Lawrence Garfield in Washington, D.C., on February 13, 1961, the only child of Iris and Paul Garfield.[3][4][5][6] His mother is of Irish descent,[7] and his father was from a Jewish family.[8] Rollins' 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.[9] When Rollins was three years old, his parents divorced and he was raised by his mother in the Washington neighborhood of Glover Park.[3][10][11][12] As a child and teenager, Rollins was sexually assaulted,[13] and he suffered from depression and low self-esteem.[14] In fourth grade, he was diagnosed with hyperactivity and took Ritalin for several years to focus during school.[15]
Rollins attended The Bullis School, then an all-male preparatory school in Potomac, Maryland.[3] According to Rollins, the school helped him to develop a sense of discipline and a strong work ethic.[14] It was at Bullis that he began writing.[12] After high school, he attended American University in Washington for one semester, but dropped out in December 1979.[4][16] He began working minimum-wage jobs, including a job as a courier for kidney samples at the National Institutes of Health.[17] In 1987, he said that he had not seen his father since the age of 18,[4] and, in 2019, wrote, "What my father thinks of me, or if he is still alive, I have no idea."[18]
Media work[edit]
Television[edit]
As Rollins rose to prominence with the Rollins Band, he began to present and appear on television. These included Alternative Nation and MTV Sports in 1993 and 1994 respectively. Rollins also co-starred in The Chase with Charlie Sheen. In 1995 Rollins appeared on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries that explored the murder of his best friend Joe Cole[54] and presented State of the Union Undressed on Comedy Central. Rollins began to present and narrate VH1 Legends in 1996.[55] Rollins, busy with the Rollins Band, did not present more programs until 2001, but made appearances on a number of other television shows, including Welcome to Paradox in 1998 in the episode "All Our Sins Forgotten", as a therapist who develops a device that can erase the bad memories of his patients. Rollins also voiced Mad Stan in Batman Beyond in 1999 and 2000.[56][57]
Rollins was a host of film review programme Henry's Film Corner on the Independent Film Channel, before presenting the weekly The Henry Rollins Show on the channel. The Henry Rollins Show is now being shown weekly on Film24 along with Henry Rollins Uncut. 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.[58] He also hosted Fox's short-lived 2001 horror anthology Night Visions.[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.[60] In 2006, Rollins appeared in a documentary series by VH1 and The Sundance Channel called The Drug Years.[61]
Rollins appears in FX's Sons of Anarchy's second season, which premiered in the fall of 2009 in the United States. Rollins plays A.J. 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.[62] In 2009, Rollins voiced "Trucker" in American Dad!'s fourth season (episode eight).[63] Rollins voiced Benjamin Knox/Bonk in the 2000 animated film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.[64]
In 2010, Rollins appeared as a guest judge on season 2 episode 6 of RuPaul's Drag Race.[65][66] In 2011, he was interviewed in the National Geographic Explorer episode "Born to Rage", regarding his possible link to the MAOA gene (warrior gene) and violent behavior.[67] In 2012, he hosted the National Geographic Wild series "Animal Underworld", investigating where the real boundaries lie in human-animal relationships.[68] Rollins also appeared in the Hawaii Five-0 episode "Hoʻopio" that aired on May 6, 2013.
In November 2013, Rollins started hosting the show 10 Things You Don't Know About on the History Channel's H2.[69] In 2014, he voiced the antagonist Zaheer in the third season of the animated series The Legend of Korra.[70]
Rollins played the part of Lt. Mueller in episodes 1-3 of the fourth season of the TV series Z Nation, which originally aired on Syfy in 2017.[71]
In 2019, Rollins began appearing as a disillusioned poisons instructor in the TV series Deadly Class.
Personal life[edit]
Views and relationships[edit]
Rollins has said that he does not have religious or spiritual beliefs, though he also does not consider himself an atheist.[118] He has mostly avoided recreational drugs throughout his life, but experimented a few times with alcohol, cannabis, and LSD during his teens and early 20s.[119][120][121]
Rollins is childless by choice,[122] and says that he has not been in a romantic relationship since his 20s.[123] Rollins said, "I am not that interested in having someone to account to and be romantic with on a regular basis. Every once in a while I think I want it, but it's like holding on to sand. It always slips away. Falling in love does not interest me."[124] A lifelong bachelor, Rollins considers himself a solitary person, and maintains few deep relationships outside of his professional ones.[125] One of his closest personal friends is musician Ian MacKaye, with whom he has been close since they met as children.[123] He also enjoys a friendship with actor William Shatner, which developed after he performed on Shatner's album Has Been.
After nearly 40 years of living in Los Angeles, Rollins mentioned during his "Good to see you" tour that he had relocated to Nashville.
In an interview with Jason Tanamor of Zoiks! Online, when asked about a longtime rumor of Rollins being homosexual, the singer said, "Perhaps wishful thinking. If I were gay, believe me, you would know."[126]
Murder of Joe Cole[edit]
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. Cole died after being shot in the face, but Rollins escaped.[127] The murder remains unsolved. In an April 1992 Los Angeles Times interview, Rollins revealed he kept a plastic container full of soil soaked with Cole's blood: "I dug up all the earth where his head fell—he was shot in the face—and I've got all the dirt here, and so Cole's in the house. I say good morning to him every day. I got his phone, too, so I got a direct line to him. So that feels good."[127]
In a 2001 interview with Howard Stern, Rollins was asked about rumors that he kept Cole's brain in his house. He stated that he has only the soil from the spot where Cole was killed. During the interview, he also speculated that the reason they were targeted may have been because, days prior to the incident, record producer Rick Rubin had requested to hear the newly recorded album The End of Silence and parked his Rolls-Royce outside their house while carrying a cell phone. Because of the notoriety of the neighborhood, Rollins suspected that this would bring trouble because of the implication that there was money in the home. He even wrote in his journal the night of Rubin's visit that his home "is going to get popped".[128][129]
Rollins has included Cole's story in his spoken word performances.[130]
