Henry Rollins

The last time I saw Henry Rollins was on a giant billboard on the LES in NYC in 2016 (while on this Sis Diss trip), and before that, at the first Lollapalooza performing with Rollins Band. But I have long wanted to see him speak (and yell!), so it was such a treat to finally do so on his current Good to See You book tour.

Rollins is a glorious human being and so infinitely full of explosive energy that he truly is, borrowing from his own self-description, a “vibrating man.” Outspoken, fiercely anti-racist anti-transphobic pro-lgbtq pro-woman pro-choice, anti-incarceration in favor of mental health support, he sweeps onto the stage promptly at 7:30, opens his mouth and—if you know anything about his spoken word tours, it’s all true: out pours a single 2.5-hour-long sentence touching on the above topics with no stops, not even for a sip of water.

He talks a lot about his close friend Ian MacKaye (Fugazi/Minor Threat) and his partner in crime Heidi May. The tales he shares with us draw from his uniquely wild, intense, and exceptional pool of life experiences, all of which feed into his offerings on how to go about “making the end of this century better than it began.”

Unapologetically big-hearted, he genuinely meets everyone half way in an accepting embrace of the oftentimes difficult realm that is the human condition, all the while humorously self-depreciating, not to mention wickedly funny. By the end of the evening, what little eye makeup I am wearing has slid down beneath my lower eyelids, encircling them in a visual tribute to the fits of cry-laughing he has caused me and the rest of the audience.

photograph of a billboard ad for Calvin Klein mounted on the side of a building in New York City, on the left is musician, author, comedian Henry Rollins wearing a black muscle tank, and on the right two models topless models shown from the side, wearing black skirts. — *Henry Rollins, Lower East Side billboard (New York City, 2016)*

Embracing the youth of today, he tells us he’s ready to step aside and hand over the mantle to let them get to work improving our world (yet I don’t think he should feel the need for that, it should be a both at the same time type-situation…the world simply needs more Henry Rollins, not less).

Two and a half hours go by, and I could have continued listening to him for much longer still.

Henry Rollins Good to See You tour dates
Sic, latest book by Henry Rollins