83 Facts About Henry Rollins

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.

Henry Rollins 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.

Henry Rollins currently hosts a weekly radio show on KCRW, is a regular columnist for Rolling Stone Australia, and was a regular columnist for LA Weekly.

Henry Rollins's mother is of Irish descent, and his father was from a Jewish family.

When Henry Rollins was three years old, his parents divorced and he was raised by his mother in the Washington neighborhood of Glover Park.

Henry Rollins attended The Bullis School, then an all-male preparatory school in Potomac, Maryland.

Henry Rollins began working minimum-wage jobs, including a job as a courier for kidney samples at the National Institutes of Health.

From 1979 to 1980, Henry Rollins was working as a roadie for DC bands, including Teen Idles.

Henry Rollins put words to the band's five songs and wrote several more.

Henry Rollins had enjoyed being the band's frontman, and had earned a reputation for fighting in shows.

Henry Rollins soon became a fan of the band, exchanging letters with bassist Chuck Dukowski and later inviting the band to stay in his parents' home when Black Flag toured the East Coast in December 1980.

When Black Flag returned to the East Coast in 1981, Henry Rollins attended as many of their concerts as he could.

At an impromptu show in a New York bar, Black Flag's vocalist Dez Cadena allowed Henry Rollins to sing "Clocked In", a song Henry Rollins had asked the band to play in light of the fact that he had to drive back to Washington, DC, to begin work.

Unbeknownst to Henry Rollins, Cadena wanted to switch to guitar, and the band was looking for a new vocalist.

The band was impressed with Henry 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.

Henry Rollins played his first show with Black Flag on July 25,1981, at Cuckoo's Nest in Costa Mesa, California.

Henry Rollins was in a different environment in Los Angeles; the police soon realized he was a member of Black Flag, and he was hassled as a result.

Black Flag's change in musical style and appearance alienated many of their original fans, who focused their displeasure on Henry Rollins by punching him in the mouth, stabbing him with pens, or scratching him with their nails, among other things.

Henry Rollins often fought back, frequently dragging audience members on stage and assaulting them.

Henry Rollins released two solo records in 1987, Hot Animal Machine, a collaboration with guitarist Chris Haskett, and Drive by Shooting, recorded as "Henrietta Collins and the Wifebeating Childhaters"; Rollins released his second spoken word album, Big Ugly Mouth, in the same year.

In 1991, the Henry Rollins Band signed a distribution deal with Imago Records and appeared at the Lollapalooza festival; both improved the band's presence.

Cole was murdered by a gunshot to the head; Henry Rollins escaped without injury but police suspected him in the murder and detained him for ten hours.

The Henry Rollins Band released The End of Silence, Henry Rollins's first charting album.

The Henry Rollins Band embarked upon the End of Silence tour; bassist Weiss was fired toward its end, and replaced by funk and jazz bassist Melvin Gibbs.

The Henry Rollins Band appeared at Woodstock 94 and released Weight, which ranked on the Billboard Top 40.

Henry Rollins released Get in the Van: On the Road with Black Flag, a double-disc set of him reading from his Black Flag tour diary of the same name; he won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording as a result.

Henry Rollins was named 1994's "Man of the Year" by the American men's magazine Details and became a contributing columnist to the magazine.

Henry Rollins released Everything, a recording of a chapter of his book Eye Scream with free jazz backing, in 1996.

Henry Rollins has appeared in various films, including Heat, Johnny Mnemonic and Lost Highway.

The Henry Rollins Band signed to Dreamworks Records in 1997 and soon released Come In and Burn, but it did not receive as much critical acclaim as their previous material.

Henry Rollins continued to release spoken-word book readings, releasing Black Coffee Blues in the same year.

In 1998, Henry Rollins released Think Tank, his first set of non-book-related spoken material in five years.

Henry Rollins had produced a Los Angeles hard rock band called Mother Superior, and invited them to form a new incarnation of the Rollins Band.

The Henry Rollins Band released several more albums, including 2001's Nice and 2003's Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three.

Henry Rollins was noted in the Washington, DC hardcore scene for what journalist Michael Azerrad described as a "compelling, raspy howl".

Henry Rollins then abandoned his State of Alert "bark" and adopted the band's swing.

In 1995, Henry Rollins produced Australian hard rock band the Mark of Cain's third full-length album Ill at Ease.

In 1995 Henry Rollins appeared on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries that explored the murder of his best friend Joe Cole and presented State of the Union Undressed on Comedy Central.

Henry Rollins began to present and narrate VH1 Legends in 1996.

Henry Rollins voiced Mad Stan in Batman Beyond in 1999 and 2000.

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 being shown weekly on Film24 along with Henry Rollins Uncut.

Henry Rollins hosted Fox's short-lived 2001 horror anthology series Night Visions.

In 2002, Henry 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".

Henry Rollins 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.

Henry Rollins has made a number of cameo appearances in television series such as MTVs Jackass and an episode of Californication, where he played himself hosting a radio show.

In 2006, Henry Rollins appeared in a documentary series by VH1 and The Sundance Channel called The Drug Years.

Henry Rollins appears in FX's Sons of Anarchys second season, which premiered in the fall of 2009 in the United States.

In 2010, Henry Rollins appeared as a guest judge on season 2 episode 6 of RuPaul's Drag Race.

In November 2013, Henry Rollins started hosting the show 10 Things You Don't Know About on the History Channel's H2.

In 2019, Henry Rollins began appearing as a disillusioned poisons instructor in the TV series Deadly Class.

Henry Rollins was on episode 1 of season 8 of Portlandia.

Henry Rollins played a member of the band Riot Spray, featuring Krist Novoselic.

On May 19,2004, Henry Rollins began hosting a weekly radio show, Harmony in My Head, on Indie 103.1 radio in Los Angeles.

Henry Rollins put the show on a short hiatus from early to late 2005, to undertake a spoken-word tour.

In 2008, the show was continuing each week, despite Henry Rollins's constant touring, with new pre-recorded shows between live broadcasts.

On February 18,2009, KCRW announced that Henry Rollins would be hosting a live show on Saturday nights starting March 7,2009, which has since been moved to Sunday nights at 8:00pm As of Aug 2023, Henry Rollins has hosted 748 episodes.

In 2011, Henry Rollins was interviewed on Episode 121 of American Public Media's podcast, The Dinner Party Download, posted on November 3,2011.

Henry Rollins began his film career appearing in several independent films featuring the band Black Flag.

Henry Rollins appeared in the 2007 direct-to-DVD sequel to Wrong Turn, Wrong Turn 2: Dead End as a retired Marine Corps officer who hosts his own show which tests the contestants' will to survive.

Henry Rollins has appeared in Punk: Attitude, a documentary on the punk scene, and in American Hardcore.

In 2012, Henry Rollins appeared in a short documentary entitled "Who Shot Rock and Roll" discussing the early punk scene in Los Angeles as well as photographs of himself in Black Flag taken by photographer Edward Colver.

Henry Rollins 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.

Henry 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.

Since the 1980s, Henry Rollins has toured around the world doing spoken word performances and his shows frequently last for over three hours.

Henry Rollins's 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, commentaries on society and playful anecdotes.

Henry Rollins was a playable character in both Def Jam: Fight for NY and Def Jam Fight for NY: The Takeover.

Henry Rollins is the voice of Mace Griffin in Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter.

Henry Rollins has become an outspoken human rights activist, most vocally for gay rights.

In high school, a gay classmate of Henry Rollins' was bullied by classmates to the point of attempting suicide.

Henry Rollins has cited this as the main catalyst of his "anti-homophobia".

Henry Rollins was the host of the WedRock benefit concert, which raised money for a pro-gay-marriage organization.

Henry Rollins has 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.

Henry Rollins appears with Public Enemy frontman Chuck D on the Black Flag song "Rise Above" on the 2002 benefit album Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three, the first time Henry Rollins had performed Black Flag's material since 1986.

Henry Rollins spent time in Bhopal with the people, to listen to their stories.

Henry Rollins has shared his views on the subject as keynote speaker at the Oregon Marijuana Business Conference and the International Cannabis Business Conference.

Henry Rollins has said that he does not have religious or spiritual beliefs, though he does not consider himself an atheist.

Henry Rollins has mostly avoided recreational drugs throughout his life, but experimented a few times with alcohol, cannabis, and LSD during his teens and early 20s.

Henry Rollins is childless by choice, and says that he has not been in a romantic relationship since his 20s.

Henry Rollins enjoys a friendship with actor William Shatner, which developed after he performed on Shatner's album Has Been.

Henry Rollins stated that he has only the soil from the spot where Cole was killed.

Henry Rollins even wrote in his journal the night of Rubin's visit that his home "is going to get popped".

Henry Rollins has included Cole's story in his spoken word performances.