Who Will Survive In America?

Henry Rollins both exudes and inspires confidence. Across his career, he has demonstrated an almost inhuman obsession with personal improvement. He remains in a better state of physical and mental conditioning at age 51 than your average male at age 26. Disarmingly intelligent, he speaks with authority and good humour on politics, culture, music, literature, and countless other topics.

“My goal as an artist is to be clear – to get the material across,” the spoken-word artist says directly. “I can't tell people what to do or how to react to something. They're going to do what they're going to do. It's up to me to make it clear. They can do whatever they want with what I give them but at least they will know what I meant. What I don't like is grey area. 'You weren't very clear about that' – that's a fail, in my book.”

Such confidence is neither surprising nor undeserved. The past 30 years have seen Henry Rollins celebrated across more disciplines and in more capacities than most artists could so much as name. Beginning as vocalist for legendary '80s hardcore outfit Black Flag, Rollins' subsequent output has seen him praised as a musician, author, poet, spoken-word artist, actor, television personality, radio host, and photojournalist.

“I come from nothing. I come from nowhere. What do I have to lose? My reputation? I don't have one,” he laughs. “And it's all interesting to me. It's all interesting. I just show up. 'Hey – you want to act?' Hell yeah, I'll give that a try. I'll show up. I won't go around calling myself an actor but I'll show up. I mean, I enjoy the touring the most – it certainly takes up most of my time – but I also have to eat every day. If I can do that through doing stuff I find interesting, I'm going to do it.”

What is surprising is what actually drives Rollins forward. His confidence and reputation automatically suggest a figure driven by ethics or ego – and, despite his protestations on both counts, those are clearly both factors in his work – but, in truth, his career is defined through much simpler terms. It's a matter of survival. Uneducated and operating without any specific profession to his credit, Henry Rollins is simply determined not to be discarded by his own society.

“My country is not necessarily a country as much as it is an idea. Democracy is an idea. The constitution is a marvellous thing to aspire to. It is, as much as anything else, an environment that you pass and fail in – it is an environment that you survive,” he outlines clearly. “I've thought that since the summer of 1984 where, as a 23-year-old, I first began to understand Reaganism. At this point, I am hellbent on surviving America.”

“I tell you that – and I say yes to work – because, for people like me, it's over after a while,” Rollins laughs. “'Thank you, that's enough, we'd like a younger version'. All of a sudden, you don't have any work. While the iron's hot, I'm going to say yes to everything.”

Henry Rollins plays Margaret River Cultural Centre Thursday 10 May and Astor Theatre Friday 11 and Saturday 12