10 Questions with Henry Rollins – Interview

Henry Rollins is one of the hardest working men in entertainment, period. If you’ve ever heard Henry talk about his typical (read: insane) schedule, work ethic and DIY attitude toward pretty much everything, then you  know he’s always working on something. Always.

When we spoke with Henry in Detroit at the end of November 2008, we asked if we could get a quick interview with him. He said, “Sure, if you don’t mind waiting. Send me your questions.” Naturally, we said, “Sure! No problem.” and we waited. Then we waited. Then we waited a bit more.

After an historical election, the holidays, the new year, lots of travel, a few speaking gigs, the passing of one radio show and the birth of a new one, a couple new books in the works and some acting gigs, Mr. Rollins had a scant 8 seconds to catch his breath and answer our questions. Well, some of our questions. We sent him 38 questions in all; he had time for 10. These are the ones that were selected. Enjoy.

STI: What can you tell us about A Preferred Blur, A Mad Dash and the one you recently alluded to that will be out years from now?

HR: APB and AMD are travel/journal books from 2007 and 2008 respectively. The other book is photos and essays and is in early stages of production. APB will be out in April 2009 and AMD will be out in November of 2009 if all goes to plan.

STI: If you had your way, what books would you make mandatory in high school or college curricula?

HR: George Orwell’s 1984, The Stranger by Albert Camus, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Dostoyevsky’s Crime And Punishment. Those would be good for high school. For college, hell, I don’t know what to do with college students. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein and Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic by Chalmers Johnson maybe.

STI: The music industry blames file sharing and/or piracy for declining sales. Do you see that as a major contributor, or is the current music business model simply not adapting to the times and technology fast enough? What other factors do you see contributing to its decline?

HR: I think the major factor in the couldn’t-come-soon-enough decline of the major label industry is greed. Greed and underestimating the intelligence of their patrons.File sharing has had an effect, certainly. Why do people share files? Maybe because you put out a CD for $19.99 and two songs on it are good and the rest is so-so because you told the band to hurry up already. When you make art into an industry, everyone will suffer. I am sorry about all the people who lost their jobs but this thing had to end.

STI: Vinyl has risen from the dead in a major way over the past few years. In 2008, sales of LPs were up by 89%, from 990,000 in ’07 to 1.88 million this past year. What do you think has sparked this resurrection? What albums do you think sound better on vinyl than CD or other digital media?

HR: I think a lot of people enjoy the hands-on aspect of an LP. The artwork is more visible as well, always cool. That could be a part of it. What albums sound better on vinyl? ALL OF THEM.

STI: Are you still working with Paul Rieckhoff and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America? On a related note, have you recently been on any USO tours and are you scheduled for any upcoming visits this year?

HR: I am waiting for IAVA to finalize a video they are doing as I will be supplying voice over for it. USO has asked if I will do a tour later in the year. I will check [my] schedule and see if I can accommodate.

STI: If there was only one thing you could make the American people understand about what you’ve seen on your many tours to visit the troops, what would it be?

HR: That these are fantastic men and women and that Iraq and Afghanistan are a fool’s mission.

STI: When visiting other countries, what’s the most common thing people express to you now that Barack Obama is in office and the reign of the Bush Regime is over?

HR: An incredible amount of happiness and relief. I was just in Mali and people were very excited about [our new] president. This is the only country I have been to since Obama won the election though. I will be doing some travel this year and will find out more when I get on the road. I was out and about in the world quite a bit leading up to the election though and people were very hopeful about Obama winning.

STI: Some say President Obama’s biggest challenge over the coming years will be the economy, others say universal health care, some claim our foreign policy. What do you think his biggest challenge over the next four years will be?

HR: The economy. Its state will dictate what happens in all other areas.

STI: If nothing else, what do you think he should absolutely accomplish during his first term?

HR: Out of Iraq, out of Afghanistan, close Gitmo, close black site prisons, stop all torture of “detainees.” Talks with Iran, China, North Korea, Cuba.

STI: You cover America’s dependency on foreign oil and relying on countries that “hate our guts” quite a bit as well as getting off our collective asses and doing something about it, ie. solar panels, electric cars, wind energy, etc. Is it fair to ask what Henry Rollins is doing for his part? For example, do you and Heidi [May] kick it in a solar-powered office or does the Bon JoviMobile run on second-hand fryer grease like Willie Nelson’s tour bus?

HR: Of course it’s fair. I mostly do all the normal things, I light the room I am in, rarely use heat, never use AC, drive as little as possible. I shower with the water off except for soaping up and rinsing off. I am in process of moving and have not considered putting solar panels on a place I am hoping to leave. If I can get somewhere else to live, I will pursue that. I have never pursued an alt. energy tour bus. I pay my carbon offset, although I don’t know for sure what good it does, I am hopeful.

Henry Rollins: http://21361.com

Thanks to Tresa Redburn at DEPT 56.

Four Questions About Barack Obama – The MultiView

Today’s multiview stems from a questions I found myself asking just about everyone I ran into shortly after Barack Obama won the presidential election. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to ask some people who took the time to either sit down and answer into a recorder or email their answers back to us. Below are answers from people spanning generations, income levels, race, sex, political affiliations and so on. Interviews were reproduced as faithfully to the original as possible.

We also welcome you to answer the following questions in our Comments section below. Enjoy.

Question 1: Where were you and what were you doing when Barack Obama won the necessary votes and gave his acceptance speech?

“I was at Jason Gibner’s house with his lovely pregnant wife Erin and my lovely lady Mariah and I was fighting back tears as I kind of sat and took in what this meant. And then later on I was very jealous of all the stories that I heard from people of downtown Ann Arbor exploding in a huge flurry of activity and people charging the Diag and high-fiving each other and beeping at and everything like that. I thought that was great, but I was very happy to celebrate this time with very amazing friends and life-long buds.” – Jeremy Wheeler, DJ/comic artist/film critic, Ann Arbor, MI

“I was at Babs’, oddly enough [where this interview took place]. Actually, I was flyering for a gig and I was out in the streets and I hit, like, seven to ten bars that night and just catchin’ the vibe that night. Honestly, it didn’t really hit me until I watched his acceptance speech and honestly, a little shit welled up in me, like I’m not gonna [cry], but — You know what it was? It was, I was proud to be an American all over again. I am so United States. I love everything this country was built on. I hate some of the shit this government does, but I love the fact that I’m able to hate it. Do you know what I mean? And I was really just choked up that I was happy to be American all over again. Like, I didn’t want to move out of the country anymore. I wanted to stay here and do something and I was so happy. To me it was a monumental thing and it didn’t really hit me until I went home and watched the re-run of the acceptance speech and I was like — I was with my buddy and both of us were kind of choked up. It was two grown-ass men watching television and not talkin’, like, ‘Dude, don’t look at me.’ [laughs]” – Brian “Just B” Alverez, DJ, Ann Arbor, MI

“I was actually in my office finishing up work that I had to do for the next day unfortunately. But, I was sort of keeping track of what was going on my computer as it was going on. Yeah, CNN.com and I was just hitting refresh while I was doing my work. I was writing a research proposal for one of my courses.” – Shawn Henry, U of M Grad Student, Mathematics, Ann Arbor, MI

“I was at home in my living room and I was sitting there bewildered, dumbfounded, excited and amazed. It took me a whole 24 hours to really realize that he actually had won. Not only won, but he won. He didn’t just win by a couple of votes, he like, really won by a landslide considering that he’s a black president — and I’m black — I didn’t think that America was really ready to have a black president, to be perfectly honest. I voted for him, of course, not because he was black but just because he was better than McCain. I liked McCain. I just thought he’s a little bit too straight-laced, too conservative for what the country needed as a whole at this particular moment. I think maybe if he would’ve ran in the 80s or early 90s, he would’ve been a prime candidate and idealistic president for that era. But I don’t think with how everybody is just so liberal and more open-minded as the years go on, you know, in the new millennium. I don’t think that — I never thought that [McCain] would win and definitely, Palin didn’t help. ” – Laditra Jackson – Chef, The Melting Pot, Ann Arbor, MI

“I was at home and I was just watching it on TV and I was proud! I was proud of him, not just for being the president but just for conducting himself in the manner that he did. You very rarely see, like, a lot of black young males — I consider him as young. He’s not my age, but he’s young, you know. I just took it as a movement. It let a lot of people know of the different cultures that, you know, African-Americans — it’s not just one stereotype, so I liked that because I think that because he’s president, that other people will look at other black males as positive figures, not just as drug dealers or bangers or somebody who’s trying to rob you or anything. It’s a lot of people that I know that’s black, but they’re so close to white that you wouldn’t really know they were black unless you seen them. Like, if you talk to them over the phone, you’d be like, ‘Oh, wow.’ cuz they’re into more white stuff than, you know, black stuff. It’s definitely a positive thing because it opens up doors for, you know, it might be other young kids aspiring to be a president. When I was younger, I was like, I looked at the ruler of all the presidents and I was like, ‘Ain’t anybody in my family every been president. I don’t see anybody black on here. There’s about 24 presidents on the ruler. I just didn’t even think about growing up as a president was even possible. It is enlightening. It is motivation that you can be what you want to be if you strive for it.  ” – Ralph Cheatham, The Melting Pot, Ann Arbor, MI

“I was at my house in Ferndale. We hosted an election party and had CNN on the TV in the living room and NBC on the TV in the dining room. I first saw it on the NBC and was like “NBC’s Calling it…” walked into the living room and CNN called it and we erupted into applause and then sort of stood around with this moment of awe and wonder. A couple of moments later I went out on the front porch and could hear people cheering on 9 Mile Road in downtown Ferndale so we started cheering on our porch too. We watched his speech from my living room. Wanted so bad to drive around town like the red wings had won, but didn’t.” – Scott Myers, Actor/Improviser, Ferndale, MI

“Lying in bed, watching the vote count. (I was not feeling well). Afterward I could hear screams of joy up and down the NYC blocks.” – Jessie Russell, New York, NY

“Salida, CO. Sleeping.” – Forest Casey, Photojournalist, Los Angeles, CA

(Continued on next page…)