WEBVTT - Henry Rollins 0:00:15.436 --> 0:00:24.436 Pushkin. Henry Rawlins is intense about the things he loves. 0:00:25.596 --> 0:00:27.876 It's like he's on a mission from God, and he's 0:00:27.876 --> 0:00:30.396 been that way since his days It's Black Flags frontman. 0:00:30.516 --> 0:00:35.356 In the eighties, their music was pure aggression. At shows, 0:00:35.556 --> 0:00:38.556 there was no delineating between the band and the audience. 0:00:39.116 --> 0:00:42.316 It was all just one big moshpian with Rollins physically 0:00:42.396 --> 0:00:45.316 fighting off the crowd and dodging beer bottles hurled at 0:00:45.356 --> 0:01:02.356 his head. Real punk rock Gallins, Gallard Riding lovedy. For 0:01:02.436 --> 0:01:05.716 nearly twenty five years, Henry Rawlins toured the world relentlessly, 0:01:06.316 --> 0:01:10.156 first as Black Flag, then Rollins Band, and most recently 0:01:10.356 --> 0:01:13.796 as a spoken word artist just before the pandemic, who 0:01:13.836 --> 0:01:16.596 performed in twenty one countries and was the keynote speaker 0:01:16.636 --> 0:01:19.476 at conferences for things as Munday in a Software but 0:01:19.556 --> 0:01:22.836 also at cannabis conventions, which is funny for someone as 0:01:22.836 --> 0:01:26.876 famously straight edge as Rollins. Henry and Rick Rubin, to 0:01:27.116 --> 0:01:30.076 the most music obsessed dudes of all time, met way 0:01:30.076 --> 0:01:32.716 back in the day. They even started the Infinite Zero 0:01:32.796 --> 0:01:35.836 label together in the early nineties to reissue long forgotten 0:01:35.876 --> 0:01:39.636 albums they both loved. Rick sat with Henry at Changela 0:01:39.756 --> 0:01:42.836 pre pandemic, and in full Rollin's fashion, the stories just 0:01:42.916 --> 0:01:45.796 poured out of him. Henry talks about the time he 0:01:45.836 --> 0:01:48.356 was christened the lead singer by HR from Bad Brains, 0:01:48.796 --> 0:01:50.596 the day he woke up and realized he was done 0:01:50.636 --> 0:01:53.196 right in music, and why he'll never be the old 0:01:53.236 --> 0:02:00.076 guy on stage performing his greatest hits. This is broken 0:02:00.116 --> 0:02:03.476 record liner notes for the digital age. I'm justin Richmondson. 0:02:08.196 --> 0:02:12.236 Here's Rick Rubin and Henry Rollins. I was thinking about 0:02:12.236 --> 0:02:18.196 the fact that both of us have essentially made music 0:02:18.236 --> 0:02:20.716 our lives, and neither of us, I would say, a 0:02:20.796 --> 0:02:26.196 particularly virtuoso and my musician, I can't. I can't play 0:02:26.196 --> 0:02:28.556 a note on any instrument. All I can do is 0:02:28.596 --> 0:02:33.036 buy him and carry him upstairs. Yes, I can't, and 0:02:33.076 --> 0:02:36.516 I've never wanted to. I mean, I've written songs in 0:02:36.636 --> 0:02:39.796 my head. I co wrote a song with George Clinton 0:02:40.236 --> 0:02:43.036 once and we hummed it to the band. He's like 0:02:43.556 --> 0:02:45.916 I got something, and he hummed, I go, that's King Crimson. 0:02:45.996 --> 0:02:48.516 How'd you know I have that record? And he hummed 0:02:48.516 --> 0:02:50.236 another one. I go, that's one of your own records, 0:02:50.276 --> 0:02:52.876 like oh man, And then we finally came up with 0:02:52.916 --> 0:02:56.236 something that he wasn't already used. And then I hummed 0:02:56.276 --> 0:02:59.236 something and we wrote this song together and neither one 0:02:59.276 --> 0:03:01.476 of us. He could probably play something. I don't know, 0:03:01.956 --> 0:03:05.196 but we just found the music by just going due. 0:03:05.356 --> 0:03:07.036 And the band were like like this. I'm like, yeah, man. 0:03:07.596 --> 0:03:10.036 And it was fascinating to be standing in front of 0:03:10.276 --> 0:03:12.956 these guys sitting he was at the old Cherokee studios, 0:03:13.876 --> 0:03:16.956 Me and Clinton looking at these guys going and a 0:03:17.036 --> 0:03:19.756 song happened. Yeah, with no one's with no one else 0:03:19.876 --> 0:03:23.316 sitting at a piano or anything. Yeah, so if you 0:03:23.596 --> 0:03:26.116 if you know what you want to hear. Yeah. And 0:03:26.276 --> 0:03:30.156 I've never been a musician, you know. I was angry. 0:03:30.396 --> 0:03:32.756 And they said, here's a microphone, here's a beat, do 0:03:32.876 --> 0:03:36.076 your thing all right now? I can do yes. At 0:03:36.116 --> 0:03:38.876 one time, our second bass player, Melvin Gibs, he heard 0:03:38.916 --> 0:03:40.636 me singing. He goes, oh, just put it in E, man, 0:03:41.636 --> 0:03:45.116 what does that mean? Like you're E. I didn't know 0:03:45.156 --> 0:03:47.876 what that meant until later, like this, just anyone get 0:03:47.916 --> 0:03:50.996 hit at Henry, You're safe in E. I'm like, I 0:03:50.996 --> 0:03:53.836 still don't know what it means. Really, I guess that 0:03:53.916 --> 0:04:00.356 means I suck or limited? What was your first love 0:04:00.396 --> 0:04:02.876 affair with music, go to the tell me your first 0:04:03.036 --> 0:04:06.796 memories of like this is for me. A couple of things. Well, 0:04:06.796 --> 0:04:09.396 if my mom had pitch perfect taste in me music 0:04:09.636 --> 0:04:12.436 and we rarely watched TV, but we she would play 0:04:12.436 --> 0:04:14.956 one record after another, and we go to the record 0:04:15.036 --> 0:04:18.116 store up to three nights a week. My mom was 0:04:18.156 --> 0:04:24.076 a record buyer. Bartok, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Hendricks, Mary mcaba, Barbara 0:04:24.076 --> 0:04:26.396 streisand showed too. It's like poor gay in best Miles 0:04:26.476 --> 0:04:30.796 Monk Coltrane. I mean, like perfect taste in music. I 0:04:30.796 --> 0:04:34.036 don't necessarily need a Barbara streisand record every day, but 0:04:34.076 --> 0:04:37.036 those are good records. I mean, she's not messing around. 0:04:36.596 --> 0:04:41.316 She's incredible Leadbelly, Dylan, both Guthries. My mom is like 0:04:41.476 --> 0:04:44.956 her record collection is a mo And as a young adult, 0:04:45.036 --> 0:04:47.236 I went through her record collection as like a twenty 0:04:47.236 --> 0:04:49.236 something who knew a thing or two, and I went, wow, 0:04:49.916 --> 0:04:52.996 Miles Davis, like, how come how come it stops it? 0:04:53.076 --> 0:04:56.196 In a silent way, she's I just couldn't. I stopped 0:04:56.276 --> 0:04:58.916 understanding Miles at a certain point, and she said, I 0:04:58.996 --> 0:05:00.996 used to go see Miles and Coltrane all the time. 0:05:01.036 --> 0:05:04.036 I said, you saw Miles, and she goes yeah, together separately, 0:05:04.476 --> 0:05:07.276 like you're killing me. I had no idea how cool 0:05:07.356 --> 0:05:12.036 my mom was. So I was raised in good music, 0:05:12.236 --> 0:05:15.756 but the thing that really knocked me out was Ringo 0:05:15.996 --> 0:05:20.956 drumming on Sergeant Pepper. I'm like, oh, I'm like eight 0:05:21.036 --> 0:05:23.956 years old, hyperactive and just bouncing off the walls of 0:05:24.036 --> 0:05:26.836 my little room. My mom gibbe Beatles records as electric 0:05:26.836 --> 0:05:29.196 babysitters because I just play them over and over again. 0:05:29.396 --> 0:05:32.556 But it was Ringo on the outro version of the 0:05:32.836 --> 0:05:35.276 last you know, the outro Sergeant Pepper riff on the 0:05:35.356 --> 0:05:37.516 way out of the record where it's just like naked 0:05:37.556 --> 0:05:41.116 just doing that that stacked up ringo beat, and I said, 0:05:41.196 --> 0:05:43.556 that's that's what I'm talking about. I didn't even know 0:05:43.556 --> 0:05:46.676 what I was into. I just liked that and that 0:05:46.676 --> 0:05:49.916 that that plays in my head all the time, and 0:05:50.276 --> 0:05:53.996 that was the hook. And the first things I bought 0:05:54.036 --> 0:05:57.396 when I made money, like throwing newspapers, was records, and 0:05:57.436 --> 0:06:02.636 I bought you know, bike and records. It wasn't candy drugs, 0:06:02.796 --> 0:06:05.356 it was music. And I you know, records are four 0:06:05.396 --> 0:06:08.276 dollars and ninety nine cents. Back when Carter was president, 0:06:08.836 --> 0:06:11.356 and I would make my money and go buy my 0:06:11.396 --> 0:06:14.756 four dollars ninety nine cent. Some girls fly like an 0:06:14.756 --> 0:06:18.636 eagle rocks toys in the attic, you know, whatever was 0:06:18.716 --> 0:06:21.636 what was up? And so how old are you at 0:06:21.636 --> 0:06:24.836 this time? Fifteen fourteen? Yeah, I was buying records steadily 0:06:25.196 --> 0:06:27.876 by the time I was fourteen. I was a school 0:06:27.876 --> 0:06:30.276 One time at prep school, all boys, and I walked 0:06:30.316 --> 0:06:32.116 by one of the major jocks. He's got one of 0:06:32.156 --> 0:06:35.396 those one speaker tape decks and he's got this crazy 0:06:35.476 --> 0:06:37.596 music coming from and I took all the courage I 0:06:37.596 --> 0:06:40.116 could someone like, you excuse me, sir, what are you 0:06:40.156 --> 0:06:41.796 listening to? And he looked at me like I was 0:06:42.076 --> 0:06:44.556 the dumbest guy on the planet. He's like Ted Nugent, 0:06:44.756 --> 0:06:48.316 Like get a clue. I was like, duly noted. And 0:06:48.396 --> 0:06:50.756 I went to the record store after school that day 0:06:50.756 --> 0:06:53.156 because I always worked, I always had little pocket money, 0:06:53.676 --> 0:06:57.116 and I bought free for all and then I went 0:06:57.116 --> 0:06:59.356 backwards and bought the first album and those are the 0:06:59.836 --> 0:07:01.396 Nugent records that were out, and I put him on 0:07:01.476 --> 0:07:05.036 im like, oh, that's there, it is, That's what I'm 0:07:05.076 --> 0:07:07.556 talking about. And then a couple of years later, me 0:07:07.596 --> 0:07:09.636 and Ian McKay saw him live and I was kind 0:07:09.636 --> 0:07:11.396 of like the one of the best things I've ever seen, 0:07:12.076 --> 0:07:14.676 and it was like, to this day, top five live 0:07:14.676 --> 0:07:16.396 gigs I've ever seen in my life, and I've seen 0:07:16.476 --> 0:07:20.836 quite a few gigs. And so music was an obsession 0:07:21.636 --> 0:07:23.796 all through high school because it was the escape from 0:07:23.836 --> 0:07:26.396 the drudgery of an all boys prep school where as 0:07:26.436 --> 0:07:29.796 a hyperactive riddle and adult student which didn't do well 0:07:29.836 --> 0:07:32.516 on any level in school. And that's when me and 0:07:32.596 --> 0:07:37.116 Ian McKay from Fugazi and Minor Threat, our friend, we 0:07:37.516 --> 0:07:39.316 were gig guys. We would just go to the sea 0:07:39.396 --> 0:07:43.516 the everybody Van Hale and Arrowsmith, Zeppelin. We saw everything 0:07:43.556 --> 0:07:48.476 we could. And then when punk rock hit, that's when 0:07:48.556 --> 0:07:50.956 music became like it went into the red as far 0:07:50.996 --> 0:07:55.556 as collector guy need to know too much about everything, 0:07:56.156 --> 0:07:59.276 hair splitting, you know, magnifying glass out looking at the 0:07:59.356 --> 0:08:02.196 label where I took way better care of my records 0:08:02.196 --> 0:08:05.596 and just became super vinyl obsessive. What was the first 0:08:05.596 --> 0:08:08.236 punk record for you? The first one you heard, first 0:08:08.236 --> 0:08:09.716 one you got, first one I heard was the first 0:08:09.756 --> 0:08:12.076 Ramones album. I was. I was kind of birth purely 0:08:12.796 --> 0:08:15.116 I read about these bands. He's like, what's this punk 0:08:15.196 --> 0:08:18.436 rock craze? And I had Nugent Records that was my 0:08:18.516 --> 0:08:20.636 crazy music. And a guy in my neighborhood he's on 0:08:20.676 --> 0:08:23.476 a lot of the early discord records, rore Bert Queiroz. 0:08:24.556 --> 0:08:27.596 Bert was like the cool kid. He's just a sharp guy, 0:08:27.796 --> 0:08:30.156 really sharp guy, has his ear to the ground, and 0:08:30.196 --> 0:08:32.236 he knows about import records. And one day we're at 0:08:32.236 --> 0:08:35.316 the skate ramp and I said, you know, my music 0:08:35.356 --> 0:08:38.556 no longer addresses my issues. I was like sixteen and 0:08:38.756 --> 0:08:42.556 mad at everything, seventeen whatever. I was just pissed and like, 0:08:42.676 --> 0:08:44.756 you know, fly like an eagle. Great record, it's just 0:08:44.836 --> 0:08:47.636 not cutting it. You know, I don't understand the poetry 0:08:47.636 --> 0:08:49.516 of the lyrics. I want to, you know, meet a 0:08:49.596 --> 0:08:52.556 girl and burn something to the crownd. And so he said, 0:08:52.596 --> 0:08:55.116 come with me. So I went to his microscopic apartment 0:08:55.116 --> 0:08:56.476 he shared with his mom, and he was like, I'm 0:08:56.476 --> 0:08:59.076 going to loan you this record. I need it back tomorrow, 0:08:59.276 --> 0:09:01.996 this first Ramons album. And my mom wasn't home from 0:09:02.036 --> 0:09:04.836 work yet, so I put it on her nice speakers, 0:09:04.836 --> 0:09:08.556 not my crappyge in my room and I heard the 0:09:08.556 --> 0:09:12.196 first Ramo album, and I don't get it. There's a 0:09:12.236 --> 0:09:14.436 joke record, these four morons on the cover, and that's 0:09:14.436 --> 0:09:16.436 not a rock band. They don't look like elo, Like, 0:09:16.556 --> 0:09:18.956 what's what's their problem? And then you get to the 0:09:19.076 --> 0:09:21.396 end of it like okay, that's funny, that's not Then 0:09:21.436 --> 0:09:23.196 you play it again because he said you need to 0:09:23.196 --> 0:09:25.156 play it three times. I'm like, okay, it's a thirty 0:09:25.196 --> 0:09:29.276 minute records because the first two times, the first time 0:09:29.316 --> 0:09:32.556 you're like, this is hilarious, second time you're like and 0:09:32.596 --> 0:09:35.356 then the first time you're like, oh, lightbulb, and you're like, 0:09:35.676 --> 0:09:39.276 this is my band. And with great regret and some reluctance, 0:09:39.396 --> 0:09:42.636 I get the prize it from my grasp. And then 0:09:42.636 --> 0:09:44.876 he said, okay, here's your next lesson. First clash Shop 0:09:44.876 --> 0:09:47.396 because that's an import. Be careful. I go, what's an import? 0:09:47.436 --> 0:09:49.116 He goes, that's a day's pay. That's what that is. 0:09:49.676 --> 0:09:53.436 Twenty dollars record in nineteen seventy nine or whatever took 0:09:53.436 --> 0:09:55.796 the remote the Clash record back and still to this 0:09:55.876 --> 0:09:59.676 day one of my favorite records, and those records blew 0:09:59.756 --> 0:10:02.636 my mind. I just didn't know you could do that 0:10:02.796 --> 0:10:04.916 with I didn't know you could say that in a lyric. 0:10:05.956 --> 0:10:08.516 Have not so many instruments on a record. I'm used 0:10:08.516 --> 0:10:11.916 to elo ninety keyboards and feel I love those records. 0:10:11.956 --> 0:10:14.956 I walked through the snow to buy Out of the 0:10:14.956 --> 0:10:17.756 Blue or whatever the big double album is. I love 0:10:17.836 --> 0:10:20.516 that record. But it's like eighty of everything, and it's 0:10:20.556 --> 0:10:23.996 all so perfect. You can't get near it. With the remotes. 0:10:24.036 --> 0:10:26.036 You can hear the cracks like, oh, those are humans, 0:10:26.556 --> 0:10:28.196 And I never thought I could do that, but you, 0:10:28.276 --> 0:10:30.356 like you look at him, I could approach those guys. 0:10:30.396 --> 0:10:33.116 You're never going to meet Robert Plant, but you could 0:10:33.196 --> 0:10:35.076 meet one of those guys. And all of a sudden, 0:10:36.196 --> 0:10:39.516 I went from seeing led Zeppelin at the Capitol Center's 0:10:39.516 --> 0:10:43.836 gone Now We're the ind to seeing February fifteen, nineteen 0:10:43.916 --> 0:10:47.396 seventy one, seeing bow Didley opening for the Clash, and 0:10:47.436 --> 0:10:49.556 he said he looked at the crowd bunch a little 0:10:49.676 --> 0:10:52.316 like all one hundred and fifty of us. Do you 0:10:52.316 --> 0:10:53.676 remember when the coolest thing you're gonna have it was 0:10:53.716 --> 0:10:55.476 a fifty five Chevy, A girl at your side. We're 0:10:55.476 --> 0:10:57.756 like yay, Like no, you don't like okay whatever, We're 0:10:57.756 --> 0:10:59.876 just trying to be there with you. Man, and so 0:10:59.956 --> 0:11:02.396 bow Didley played. He was brought there. He's a DC guy, 0:11:02.476 --> 0:11:04.436 so he walked to the show. He lived right down 0:11:04.476 --> 0:11:07.276 the street, so the Clash requested him because he knew 0:11:07.316 --> 0:11:09.356 he's a DC native. And then the Clash play in 0:11:09.396 --> 0:11:12.596 the open with Janey Jones or White Riot something, and 0:11:12.636 --> 0:11:16.356 it was like getting hit with this blinding white light 0:11:16.956 --> 0:11:20.516 and it just seemed to burn, like I'm burning, my 0:11:20.556 --> 0:11:23.756 skin's on fire. This is like destroying every notion I 0:11:23.836 --> 0:11:26.036 have of what music. So I used to watch from 0:11:26.036 --> 0:11:30.956 like a block away, and suddenly within a year, I'm 0:11:30.956 --> 0:11:34.116 being sweated on by De de ramon Luck's interiors down 0:11:34.156 --> 0:11:38.436 to his underwear landing on me. I'm like, oh, naked man, 0:11:38.956 --> 0:11:42.516 Like it became real. The Bad Brains are breathing on 0:11:42.556 --> 0:11:44.436 me because I'm standing in front of them at a 0:11:44.476 --> 0:11:47.836 punk rock party. And that's when music went from this 0:11:47.916 --> 0:11:51.156 spectator sport to this thing that I knew was going 0:11:51.236 --> 0:11:55.596 to be my life, even if it's just fanboy, record store, 0:11:55.716 --> 0:11:59.436 go to guy going to a gig. Guy. I never 0:11:59.476 --> 0:12:01.836 thought of being in a band until one night, hr 0:12:01.876 --> 0:12:05.116 of the Bad Brains. He said, Harry, you're a singer, 0:12:05.596 --> 0:12:08.956 and I said, no, man, you're you're the singer. He said, 0:12:09.196 --> 0:12:10.996 you're a singer, and tonight you're gonna be in the 0:12:10.996 --> 0:12:13.596 bat brightness. And I'm standing in front of him, and 0:12:13.676 --> 0:12:16.516 he grabbed me by my arm, put me on stage, 0:12:16.636 --> 0:12:19.276 gave me the microphone, went back down off the stage 0:12:19.276 --> 0:12:21.396 about as high as the couch we're sitting on, and 0:12:21.476 --> 0:12:23.596 stud in front of me with his arms crossed. And 0:12:23.676 --> 0:12:25.716 I knew those songs, we all did. And I just 0:12:25.796 --> 0:12:27.956 call that a couple mid tempo was I could try 0:12:27.956 --> 0:12:31.956 and get near and I sang them and I remember 0:12:32.156 --> 0:12:34.956 Hr looking at me with this intense scowl like se 0:12:35.516 --> 0:12:37.596 and I was like, oh, well, I guess here's your 0:12:37.636 --> 0:12:39.836 mic back. That was a thrilling three and a half minutes. 0:12:40.876 --> 0:12:42.916 But within a few months I was in a band. 0:12:42.996 --> 0:12:47.276 But so as me and some other guy. You know, 0:12:47.356 --> 0:12:48.916 we weren't that good. We had a lot of fun. 0:12:48.916 --> 0:12:51.636 Our songs were forty four seconds, gigs were nine minutes 0:12:51.836 --> 0:12:54.476 in length. All the songs we had fit on one 0:12:54.676 --> 0:12:57.436 forty five and it's like at least five and a 0:12:57.436 --> 0:13:00.916 half minutes of music. Yeah, how long did that band last? 0:13:01.156 --> 0:13:04.076 I got into that band. They were pre existing and 0:13:04.516 --> 0:13:07.916 the singer, some guy named Lyle Pressler, he never went anywhere. 0:13:08.156 --> 0:13:10.716 He was also a good guitar players, so he moved 0:13:10.716 --> 0:13:13.716 across town to some band called Minor Threat. Oh yeah, yeah. 0:13:13.796 --> 0:13:16.676 Then anyway, so Lyle leaves and he leaves behind this 0:13:16.756 --> 0:13:19.996 band who needs a singer. So I go see his 0:13:20.076 --> 0:13:22.876 old band, the Extorts, one night, and they're shopping for 0:13:22.956 --> 0:13:25.796 a singer. So everyone knows who are seen as you 0:13:25.836 --> 0:13:27.516 can fit them all in this room. It's not that 0:13:27.636 --> 0:13:29.996 many people, so they know who I am. I know 0:13:30.076 --> 0:13:32.036 who they are. So I said, I'll sing with you guys, 0:13:32.036 --> 0:13:34.436 and they went okay. I think they're too scared to 0:13:34.476 --> 0:13:38.036 say no because they're just, you know, ah scary guy 0:13:38.036 --> 0:13:40.756 with no hair. And so suddenly I'm at band practice 0:13:40.836 --> 0:13:44.716 having to write lyrics, which amazingly was not that difficult. Well, 0:13:45.076 --> 0:13:47.276 I can't say anything about the quality of the lyrics, 0:13:47.516 --> 0:13:50.236 but it came to me I was probably pretty pedestrian, 0:13:50.316 --> 0:13:53.716 like I'll sing on every snare beat because melody's not 0:13:53.796 --> 0:13:56.476 my thing. But suddenly I'm in this band and it 0:13:56.556 --> 0:13:59.116 felt right, It felt really right. It felt like I 0:13:59.316 --> 0:14:02.356 was a fish dropped into water. No stage fright, none, zero, 0:14:02.556 --> 0:14:08.636 like I couldn't wait. And that was October eighty By 0:14:08.716 --> 0:14:13.716 July eighty one, I'm in California at Black Flag practice. 0:14:13.796 --> 0:14:16.596 How did that happen? That's crazy. I'll give you the 0:14:16.956 --> 0:14:20.036 hyper condensed version. I knew those guys because they would 0:14:20.076 --> 0:14:22.836 come through town and when they're in DC, they'd stayed 0:14:22.996 --> 0:14:26.676 in Ian's mom's basement. So Ian's house is the coolest 0:14:26.676 --> 0:14:28.916 in DC because you could go there and excuse me, 0:14:28.956 --> 0:14:32.516 miss McKay, is Ian home. He's downstairs with a black Flag, 0:14:32.716 --> 0:14:35.436 and so we're all like, you're in black Flag. We're 0:14:35.476 --> 0:14:38.236 just like staying and they're like, oh gooey on the inside. 0:14:38.596 --> 0:14:40.476 So I got to know those guys, and you know, 0:14:40.556 --> 0:14:43.236 they're just broke touring band, as I was student to 0:14:43.276 --> 0:14:46.556 find out, and they were doing a tour on the 0:14:46.596 --> 0:14:49.396 East Coast. I met him in March April. They came 0:14:49.396 --> 0:14:53.516 back in July, not playing DC, so I took a 0:14:54.316 --> 0:14:56.916 drove my car up to see them at Irving Plaza 0:14:57.076 --> 0:15:00.036 and guest list. I hung out with them all afternoon 0:15:00.036 --> 0:15:02.436 because I kind of sort of knew him. Drove with 0:15:02.516 --> 0:15:05.996 them to another show at Second and A there and 0:15:06.036 --> 0:15:08.556 I helped him load in Me and John Joseph at 0:15:08.556 --> 0:15:11.716 the chromag loaded their gear in which a guy gets stabbed, like, okay, 0:15:11.756 --> 0:15:15.556 that that just happened. Here's the snare. And I'm looking 0:15:15.596 --> 0:15:17.316 at my watch. I gotta drive to DC and do 0:15:17.396 --> 0:15:19.676 a full shift at hogandahs on no sleep. But I'm young. 0:15:19.716 --> 0:15:21.956 I can totally do it. Just one thing. I've top 0:15:22.036 --> 0:15:24.476 ramen noodles. I'm good to go. And so I looked 0:15:24.476 --> 0:15:27.316 at my watch and I said, hey, they're playing this 0:15:27.436 --> 0:15:29.436 tiny bar. I said, can you guys do a song 0:15:29.516 --> 0:15:31.396 for me? It's called clocked In. It's a great riff. 0:15:31.716 --> 0:15:34.316 And Dez, the great singer at the time, he said, 0:15:34.636 --> 0:15:36.476 this is for Henry. It's called clocked In because he's 0:15:36.476 --> 0:15:39.076 got to go to work. And he's like, who's that? 0:15:39.676 --> 0:15:41.436 And I looked at I have no memory of this. 0:15:41.516 --> 0:15:43.396 I looked at Des and Dees looked at me, and 0:15:43.476 --> 0:15:46.636 suddenly I'm standing on stage with him, and I must 0:15:46.636 --> 0:15:48.156 have had quite a look on my face because I 0:15:48.156 --> 0:15:49.356 looked at him. He just gave me the mic, like, 0:15:49.356 --> 0:15:52.596 don't hurt me. Here's the mic. I'm like okay, and 0:15:52.676 --> 0:15:54.436 the band was like, oh, Henry's gonna sing. I knew 0:15:54.436 --> 0:15:56.716 the words. It's like a ninety second song, and I 0:15:56.796 --> 0:15:59.036 sang the words the way I thought those songs should 0:15:59.036 --> 0:16:01.756 be sung, where like vital organs fly out of your mouth, 0:16:01.756 --> 0:16:05.196 the audience is terrified and Rome burns to the ground, 0:16:05.516 --> 0:16:09.516 and I do the thing, and I remember two things. 0:16:09.556 --> 0:16:12.636 I remember the audience going like ah like looking at 0:16:12.676 --> 0:16:16.116 like they're being assaulted, and Greg and Chuck looking at 0:16:16.156 --> 0:16:18.756 the center of the stage at me, going like huh, 0:16:18.756 --> 0:16:22.356 like that's keeping us awake. And I gave the mic 0:16:22.436 --> 0:16:25.516 back and I got into my wounded nineteen sixty eight 0:16:25.596 --> 0:16:28.636 VW fastback with the dent in the hood from where 0:16:28.676 --> 0:16:30.916 the mace canister bounced off it when my mom was 0:16:30.956 --> 0:16:34.516 locked in a traffic jam riot in the sixties. I 0:16:34.636 --> 0:16:36.796 drive the wounded car to my work shower in the 0:16:36.836 --> 0:16:39.636 work sync, pull on a new shirt, and I'm scooping 0:16:39.716 --> 0:16:42.316 ice cream, thinking I was in Black Flag for ninety seconds. 0:16:42.876 --> 0:16:45.836 I've been you know, I'm twenty. My life is one 0:16:45.916 --> 0:16:48.996 humiliation after another. Minimum wage jobs are going to be 0:16:49.076 --> 0:16:52.156 my life. This is I got no plan, but man, 0:16:52.316 --> 0:16:54.476 that was right. I was. I was in the right place, 0:16:54.556 --> 0:16:57.436 and I got band practice. I go back to go 0:16:57.516 --> 0:17:00.516 back to work and the phone rings. It's someone in 0:17:00.556 --> 0:17:03.916 Black Flag has found found the work number. Hey, Henry, 0:17:03.956 --> 0:17:06.916 we're auditioning singers. Dez wants to move to rhythm guitar. 0:17:07.036 --> 0:17:09.396 You're pretty crazy last night. You want to come up 0:17:09.396 --> 0:17:12.756 here to New York and audition. We'll pay your train fare. Like, 0:17:13.236 --> 0:17:14.916 what do I have to lose? I'm twenty, I'm going 0:17:14.956 --> 0:17:17.956 nowhere three seventy five an hour. I have nothing to lose, 0:17:17.996 --> 0:17:19.236 and I'm not a tough guy. I don't have a 0:17:19.276 --> 0:17:21.356 lot of guts and courage. But I said, this is it, 0:17:21.436 --> 0:17:24.276 this is a shot. This is never happening to me again. 0:17:24.636 --> 0:17:27.316 No way, shouldn't be happening now. So I said, I'll 0:17:27.356 --> 0:17:30.316 be there tomorrow, give me an address. Met the met 0:17:30.796 --> 0:17:34.516 at Odessa Polish diners great, a lot of food for cheap. 0:17:34.556 --> 0:17:36.316 That's why they liked it. I ate there so many 0:17:36.316 --> 0:17:39.396 times in Black Flag since anyway, I said, so what 0:17:39.436 --> 0:17:41.436 are we doing? I still like Clay that we're gonna 0:17:41.436 --> 0:17:43.796 go to a practice place and you're gonna sing two sets. 0:17:44.116 --> 0:17:45.676 I said, I don't know any of the words. They 0:17:45.716 --> 0:17:48.116 hardly have any records out is it sucks to be you? 0:17:48.396 --> 0:17:51.436 What was out at that point? The yellow Yeah Jealous again? 0:17:51.436 --> 0:17:53.436 In the Yellow twelve inch six pack was the EP 0:17:53.556 --> 0:17:57.036 they were touring on, and then there was the Damage, 0:17:57.436 --> 0:18:00.636 the Damage One in Louie Louis on Posh Boy, the single, 0:18:00.956 --> 0:18:04.876 and Nervous Breakdown EP. So not much, not much at all, 0:18:05.036 --> 0:18:09.036 not TV party and Rise the Bob and all the 0:18:09.156 --> 0:18:13.396 big stuff and in your world? What was Black Flag 0:18:13.396 --> 0:18:15.836 to you at that time? Before thing? To me? It 0:18:15.876 --> 0:18:18.196 was the ultimate band. And they asked me, like, what's 0:18:18.196 --> 0:18:20.636 your favorite song of ours? I said, Damage One, the 0:18:20.676 --> 0:18:24.716 slow one with the wrong chord, liked and I was like, 0:18:24.756 --> 0:18:26.556 that's the song and they went, you like that, you 0:18:26.636 --> 0:18:28.716 like the slow one. I'm like, yeah, that's the one. 0:18:28.756 --> 0:18:31.236 They want to go and kill everyone. They went, you're 0:18:31.316 --> 0:18:34.516 all right. They were fascinated that I liked the slow 0:18:34.596 --> 0:18:39.636 wrong one, classic gin weirdo chord, which is genius, and 0:18:39.676 --> 0:18:42.876 that was my jam and they went, okay, you're interesting. 0:18:43.636 --> 0:18:46.196 And so we get in this tiny practice room and 0:18:46.236 --> 0:18:50.476 I literally am holding a microphone a fifty seven, not 0:18:50.596 --> 0:18:53.116 a fifty eight, and I pinched myself because I did 0:18:53.436 --> 0:18:55.516 I didn't believe. I said, so what song you want 0:18:55.516 --> 0:18:57.556 to start with? I said, well, I didn't even know 0:18:57.596 --> 0:19:01.316 many of the song titles. I said, Police Story and gain. 0:19:02.116 --> 0:19:04.476 He has an on off. He doesn't have a tone thing. 0:19:04.556 --> 0:19:06.996 He took that out and just put an on off switch, 0:19:07.236 --> 0:19:09.076 so that all the early Black Flag records you hear, 0:19:10.076 --> 0:19:12.996 and that's just him hitting on and the thing starts howling. 0:19:13.036 --> 0:19:15.396 With feedback. It's a Dan Armstrong. We could pick ups 0:19:15.436 --> 0:19:18.996 floating in resin, so it's a feedback machine. And all 0:19:19.036 --> 0:19:22.476 I can remember is and ninety minutes later, we've done 0:19:22.516 --> 0:19:26.596 every song twice. I'm completely soaked in sweat. I have 0:19:26.756 --> 0:19:29.076 no real memory of it. All I remember is I 0:19:29.116 --> 0:19:31.996 just kind of went ooh wah wah and yelled and scream. 0:19:32.076 --> 0:19:34.076 I had fun. And they said, okay, we're gonna have 0:19:34.076 --> 0:19:36.196 a band meeting. You go wait in the front lounge. 0:19:36.516 --> 0:19:38.916 I ran across the street, got one of those cool 0:19:39.036 --> 0:19:42.836 glass bottles of tropicana. Not from concentrating. I'm like cool 0:19:43.036 --> 0:19:46.036 live in large dollar thirty five and I'm sitting there 0:19:46.076 --> 0:19:47.636 waiting for the verdict, which I figure is gonna be 0:19:47.636 --> 0:19:49.996 like hours. They're gonna take out the skull and light 0:19:50.036 --> 0:19:52.556 the candle and with out the sacred verses. Now they 0:19:52.596 --> 0:19:55.316 came out in like three minutes, and one of them, 0:19:55.316 --> 0:19:58.076 I think it was Dakowski, said so matter of factly, 0:19:58.116 --> 0:20:01.876 you're in. And I said, excuse me, you're in? I 0:20:01.916 --> 0:20:06.036 said in what in Black Flag? Who? You me? Yeah? 0:20:06.196 --> 0:20:09.356 Doing what? You're the singer of who? Black Flag? Because 0:20:09.316 --> 0:20:13.916 they were like, He's like, so you're in. And I 0:20:13.956 --> 0:20:15.676 was in disbelief. And one of them finally said you 0:20:15.716 --> 0:20:17.996 want the job or not? I was like, yeah, wait, 0:20:18.236 --> 0:20:21.396 wait a minute. I was scooping ice cream yesterday, is 0:20:21.396 --> 0:20:24.316 this happening? It was unreal? So I said, so what 0:20:24.356 --> 0:20:27.956 do I do? And I forget which maybe it was Dakowski. 0:20:28.116 --> 0:20:31.796 He hands me this massive folder of lyrics. You know, 0:20:31.836 --> 0:20:35.276 they were prepared, and they said, you learn these, you 0:20:35.396 --> 0:20:38.516 go home, you kiss your little mommy goodbye, you quit 0:20:38.556 --> 0:20:40.516 your job, you give all your stuff away, you pack 0:20:40.556 --> 0:20:43.036 a bag. Here's the tour, I tinner, you meet us 0:20:43.036 --> 0:20:46.036 as soon as you can. And then one of the 0:20:46.076 --> 0:20:49.596 road crew guys are laughing and what's so funny? Like, man, 0:20:49.636 --> 0:20:52.236