{"id":12181,"date":"2026-05-01T16:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biptunia.com\/?p=12181"},"modified":"2026-05-01T16:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:15:18","slug":"my-interview-with-henry-rollins-2003-from-my-book-30-music-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biptunia.com\/?p=12181","title":{"rendered":"My Interview with HENRY ROLLINS (2003, from my book “$30 Music School”)."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I was interviewing Henry Rollins at his LA office for my non-fiction how-to book “$30 Music School”, I had a little\u00a0Dictaphone micro-cassette recorder.<\/p>\n

We did an hour. Half way though it, my Dictaphone clicked off, a sound that if you’ve been around those devices , you know it means the tape is at the end.<\/p>\n

Rollins picked up the recorder without stopping talking and without stopping eye contact with me, flipped the tape, pressed record, and just kept talking.<\/p>\n

Henry Rollins
\nWeb site: www.two1361.com May 13, 2003, at Rollins\u2019 office. Henry Rollins is a workaholic. I\u2019ve admired him since SOA, the band Henry sang for in D.C. in 1980 and 1981, before he moved to California and joined Black Flag. The man simply does not stop: making records and books, acting in films, doing spoken word shows and
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\n1. It\u2019s funny\u2014Someone actually criticized me for having about seven percent of my last book
\ninterviews and quotes, like it was cheating. In reality, I consider it collaboration and expanding on
\nmy limited world view, and it\u2019s not cheating. It actually takes me more time (and care) to proof and
\nformat the work of others than to just barf up more of my stuff. Writing\u2019s easy for me (my editor cut
\n90 pages out of $30 Film School to trim it down to a svelte 520 pages!). Editing takes work. I just
\nthink using outside opinions and interviews make the whole thing stronger.
\nrecords. Few know this, but he actually won a Grammy for his Get in the Van spoken word album.
\nHe is one of the few people I see who operates in the Hollywood system but keeps his integrity as well as his sanity. It was a pleasure to interview him.
\nIn my opinion, this interview contains almost everything an aspiring musician needs to hear. It\u2019s an hour of mad science.
\nI got Henry Rollins\u2019 e-mail from Ian MacKaye. Sent Rollins an e-mail asking to
\ninterview him for this book. The e-mail had the subject line \u201cGot your e-mail address from Ian MacKaye.\u201d I only dropped Ian\u2019s name because I figured Henry probably gets an ungodly amount of e-mail and I know that he and Ian have been friends since they were teens.
\nWithin 90 seconds Henry wrote back, saying \u201cM, sure I guess, since Ian sent you. I am in LA; you can come by the office if you like. Today is okay, sooner the better as I am jetlagging, and things are starting to get very busy here. Henry\u201d
\nHe sent his phone number. When he said, \u201coffice\u201d I\u2019d expected a receptionist, but he answered the phone himself.
\nDamn cool\u2026.so easy, no nonsense\u202625 minutes later I was sitting in his office. There was no receptionist. He answered the door and was alone. We got right to it.
\nHis office is a modest duplex in a residential neighborhood in Hollywood. The other side has his record and book company; he lives nearby in a second house. Pretty nice by punk rock standards, but would be shabby by most Hollywood media business standards.
\nIn my mind, this guy has it going on. He\u2019s totally in charge of his own game, a workaholic, and doesn\u2019t give a damn about the image. It\u2019s all about the work for him.
\nI barely spoke. He\u2019s an amazing interview\u2014one of those guys you ask one question and they drop mad science for 20 minutes. Then you ask another question and they talk for 10 more. Henry Rollins: So, what do you want to know?
\nMichael Dean: Why do you do what you do? Why did you take the road you did instead of working for someone else?
\nHR: Well, I had normal jobs from when I was a little kid throwing newspapers until I left Washington, D.C. to move out here to be in Black Flag in the summer of 1981. Right before I came out here was the last time I had a straight job with a time clock working for someone else.
\nThen I came out here and worked for SST, Greg Ginn\u2019s label, as part of being in Black Flag. We were living on the floor of the place, and I ended up working there. You learn a lot about the independent record thing by living knee-deep in a label. I learned a lot in those five years
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\nFigure 18.1 Henry Rollins. Photo by Michael Dean.
\nin Black Flag, and from there I formed my own companies, combining what I learned there with what I learned at retail jobs as a kid. You know, working the cash register and whatnot.
\nHaving a normal job again\u2014I\u2019ve never considered it. Does that answer your question? MD: Sort of. I meant in relation to being in a band. Why do you do most of it yourself?
\nHR: The nature of what I do: books, records, the more cooks you have in the kitchen, when you throw them into the mix, often their ideas aren\u2019t your ideas and their idea gets on the cover of your record. Somehow all of the sudden there\u2019s a tambourine in the mix of your record and you\u2019re like, \u201cWhat\u2019s that about?\u201d and they\u2019re like \u201cWell, you should have showed up to the mix of your recording session.\u201d So I learned early on that the way to keep your artistic integrity intact is to learn the mechanics of how this is done and get ownership of it and be in control of it as much as possible as much of the time as you can.
\nAt this point I record all my own records and own all the music publishing rights, and I own my own companies. Next door is my book and record company and this is my office. We are a little factory, like any small independent label. We\u2019re pretty much similar to any label like Dischord or Touch and Go. Probably a fraction of the releases and a fraction of the sales, but the same kind of spirit in that we do what we like to do. Hopefully, some people like it, and if not, oh well. We\u2019re still gonna keep putting out what we think is cool rather than what we think will sell. Us liking it is the basic criterion for doing it.
\nMD: How many employees do you have?
\nHR: Two full time, and sometimes when we have a lot of mail order we have someone who comes in and helps, but we run it pretty efficiently with two people.
\nMD: When you record, do you ever employ outside producers, you know, take anyone else\u2019s suggestions on it?
\nHR: The last several Rollins Band records I\u2019ve produced, except our live one, the guy who\u2019s engineered our records for years, Clif Norrell, he produced it. I mixed it with him, but he got all the sounds. But most of our stuff I produced, not because I\u2019m the only person in the world who could do it, but because I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to hear on those records, and I didn\u2019t want to do a lot of explaining. I\u2019d rather just have an engineer that I know very well that I can tell what I want and he can get it, rather than bring in a producer whose job it is to take the music down his street. And the last few records I\u2019ve wanted a really clear sound, just a live band in a room hitting it. Very unproduced in a way. Just kind of documented.
\nMD: Did you sell part of your music publishing at one point?
\nHR: I was on a label called Imago for two records from 1991 to 1994. And they said in the contract that the only way to sign with this label was to also do a publishing deal with them. We found out later that other bands didn\u2019t have to do this. But it was a sticking point with the signing. They take part of the publishing and for that you get an advance.
\nNow I do the publishing in my band, and I give the guys in the band an advance, and I administer the music.
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\nMD: Did you come to regret that decision you made to sell your publishing back then?
\nHR: Yeah, sure, in that\u2026
\nMD: Do they have a share in what you do now?
\nHR: No, no no no, NO! Just those two records. And after that I\u2019ve never done a publishing deal again. To do your publishing with somebody is not a bad thing, because hopefully they\u2019re looking to get you into movie soundtracks and such\u2014they\u2019re looking to administer\u2014 that\u2019s the active verb, they admin your music. Dentyne comes calling and wants to\u2026. That\u2019s how you see some travel cruise commercial with an Iggy Pop song in it. He has a music publisher who goes and gets it, and he probably gets an amazing chunk of change for that. We\u2019ve been in a lot of movie soundtracks, but it\u2019s always been the director coming to me or my manager, so the music publisher never did anything that we weren\u2019t doing. I don\u2019t need the money, why would I give away the rights to anything? When we\u2019re getting the opportunities, and the publisher was doing nothing except making money. So we decided not to do that anymore.
\nMD: I know that Ian (MacKaye) turns down a lot of things like that; you seem like one of
\nthe few people who has integrity still but lives in both worlds: writing for Details Magazine and being in big Hollywood movies, but still running your own label. How do you jibe that? Do you see it as a contradiction?
\nHR: No. That brings up that whole thing of \u201cselling out.\u201d To me, selling out is when you make your record and the label says \u201cWe would prefer if you did this other song instead, and you cave in. That\u2019s selling out. There is this imaginary rule book written by someone at Maximum Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Magazine that says \u201cIf you\u2019re in a band you can\u2019t do this and this\u2026.\u201d (MD bursts out laughing.) \u201cIf you come from this kind of music you can\u2019t do this\u2026 I\u2019ve never seen it in print, and I\u2019ve never been handcuffed for these charges. I do what the fuck I want to do. The problem is when you physically try to impede my progress\u2014then it moves up to a whole \u2019nother level that you probably can\u2019t handle me on. If it\u2019s just words, mean little things, I\u2019m not Stalin, say what you want. Get in my way, it\u2019s a whole \u2019nother thing.
\nI come from a very Nietzschean Darwinian proclivity: The straightest, most direct line between two points is a broken nose. I live by that. I\u2019ve lived by that. I\u2019m not a violent person. It\u2019s all fun and games until someone tries to physically bar you from going somewhere. And then it\u2019s some Cro-Magnon watering hole bullshit. So I do what I want. I live in Hollywood. I go for some Hollywood auditions. I get in a few movies. If someone doesn\u2019t like that\u2026like I give a fuck. It\u2019s how I\u2019ve funded a lot of things that I knew wouldn\u2019t make money. I used someone else\u2019s money. Like a lot of really expensive books we\u2019ve put out. Like photo books that I wanted to do because I believed in the art. I could have never afforded these playing music in the little clubs I play in. Some of these books I\u2019ve put out and most of the records I put out. I will dip into that mainstream world. It\u2019s the same idea as a poet working at McDonald\u2019s. You get
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\nsome bread so you can put out your chapbook. For me, that\u2019s Hollywood, where I can go into a movie and do something that\u2019s fun and interesting and get a paycheck from it and do something interesting with it. I quite enjoy dabbling in the mainstream. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s an integrity thing there. I think if I were in some bag running around with 17-year-old girls, I think that\u2019s losing the plot. But I\u2019m quite grounded and I know what I\u2019m doing. On the outside it\u2019s contradiction, but for me it\u2019s subversion.
\nI\u2019ve done a lot of movies, a lot of voiceovers, but I don\u2019t have anybody\u2019s phone number. I don\u2019t keep in touch with them, I don\u2019t really think of it after I\u2019m done.
\nMD: What advice do you have for people in bands with regards to finding, keeping, and firing musicians?
\nHR: I\u2019ve only been in one situation, well, two, where there is someone in the band we didn\u2019t want in the band anymore. One because he had an alcohol problem. And no one in the band had the backbone to call the guy and tell him that it was over. So I called the guy and dispatched him. He was cool about it and said, \u201cFine.\u201d
\nThe other time the guy was such a day-to-day nightmare that when we got home from the tour he said, \u201cI quit,\u201d at the same time we said, \u201cYou\u2019re fired.\u201d And it wasn\u2019t like we said, \u201cYou\u2019re not employed by us anymore.\u201d It was like breaking up with a girlfriend; you can\u2019t be around that person anymore\u2014Velcro rip yourself away from them, can\u2019t be around that person anymore.
\nThose were the only times I\u2019ve ever been in that position, and I don\u2019t know what to recommend other than be honest, be direct, and never lose your will to confront.
\nMD: How do you deal with mean-spirited, non-constructive criticism? Does it get you down?
\nHR: Yeah, sure, as much as it would bother any human. Say someone is mean to your record. It happens. It comes with the territory.
\nBut, everybody, from the band you hate the most to the band you love the most, they have one thing in common. They worked really hard on that record. Every band, whatever you\u2019re into, they all worked hard on it. So you give it everything you have and someone rips your baby a new one. It\u2019s hard to not take it personally because you sweated blood and lost sleep to make that record. You birthed it and it was hard. So when someone gratuitously swipes it, you\u2019re like, \u201cFuck! We bled through the eyes for this.\u201d So it hurts, but it\u2019s, so what? You stop breathing? No. You just keep jamming.
\nIt happens. I\u2019ve been panned.
\nMD: The art, or you?
\nHR: Both. A lot of times they leave the music alone and just go after me. Maybe I\u2019m a bad person. Or maybe a lot of people who write for publications are people who make a living by getting Jiffy Packs of CDs that they hastily write reviews of and then take them down to
\nrecord stores and sell them so they can supplement their Top Ramen diet with Budweiser. To me, to be a music writer, you should have a record collection that looks like mine.
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\n(Rollins gets up and leads me through two rooms with shelves on every wall, floor to ceiling\u2014probably 10,000 CDs and cassettes total.)
\nMD: Where\u2019s the vinyl?
\nHR: Next door. So when these people are kind of, \u201cNeyhhhhhhhhhhhhh\u2026,\u201d I can see a lot of their record collection in what they write. At the end of the day, you make these records because you want to make them. If you put them out in the world, unleash them from the garage into the world, not everyone in the world is going to think that the pictures of your baby are pretty. They\u2019re gonna go, \u201cWhat an ugly kid you have.\u201d It hurts.
\nAnd I know I\u2019m not that bad a person. I\u2019ve never raped anybody. I\u2019ve never killed anybody. I wouldn\u2019t steal from you, nor would I hurt your child. More often than not, I\u2019d go out of my way to help you. So when I get slammed every once in a while, I look at why I\u2019m doing all this stuff. I do it because I like what I do. I give it everything I have, and I work hard at it. So if someone doesn\u2019t like what I do, tough on me, gotta keep jamming.
\nBut to say that that kind of thing doesn\u2019t hurt would be lying.
\nMD: Do you get enough sleep most nights?
\nHR: Um, I get an adequate amount. My body kind of keeled over last night. I just got back from 89 shows. I\u2019ve been on the road since January 7th. I got back from Australia Friday afternoon, slept three hours, came here and started working. Saturday and Sunday, same thing. Yesterday, I was up at 3:00 a.m., came in, went back to the house and made a protein shake, drank it, figured I\u2019d sit and let the shake assimilate, laid down on the couch, woke up three hours later, and it was dark. Managed to stagger to bed and slept another seven hours. So I guess I needed sleep. But I usually get between four and six hours.
\nMD: Is that enough?
\nHR: Some days it feels like enough. Some days it doesn\u2019t. What usually determines sleep for me is the workout I\u2019ve done that evening. Legs or back is going to put me down on the mat for a couple of extra hours. Like I did legs at 5:30 this morning, so I\u2019ll be feeling it later so I\u2019ll sleep harder. On the road with the band, I sleep longer because it\u2019s such a physical outlay. I\u2019ll walk off stage and get right to my bunk pretty quickly afterwards.
\nMD: I\u2019ve been to your shows and a lot of people want to know you afterwards. They want to talk to you and hang out and give you stuff. How do you deal with that?
\nHR: Well, I get a lot of mail. I answer all the letters. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing the last three nights, these things (Rollins points to mail bins) were full of mail. I answer every email I can. At shows I sign everything that\u2019s put in front of me, do every photo, and answer every question I can, and just do the best I can.
\nPeople talk to me every day. Here I am. I go to the store. I don\u2019t hide. I fix the roof when it leaks, I go to the hardware store, I stand in line. More often than not, I talk to someone within five minutes of being on any street anywhere. Someone starts talking to me. I just treat them like I\u2019d like to be treated.
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\nSometimes it can be a little invasive. We\u2019ve had stalkers here. We\u2019ve had people camping out here (gestures out to the bushes) for weeks at a time. It gets pretty intense. But I\u2019ve been doing this for a long time. I\u2019ve been doing shows for 23 years. Without an audience I don\u2019t have a job. So these people mean everything to me. So if they want to ask me something, I can make some time for that because I can respect the fact that they\u2019ve been checking me out. I\u2019m blown away that they keep coming after so long. I gotta think I\u2019m at least three of the seven days past the thing stamped on the side of the milk. I can\u2019t believe that people keep showing up.
\nMD: Yeah, when you were in SOA what did you think you were going to be doing in five years?
\nHR: I\u2019ve never gotten very far away from that whole mentality. I work very hard every day. I live way below my means. That\u2019s one of the reasons that the Hollywood thing\u2026it\u2019s like getting a free pencil to me. Warner Brothers, Sony, they\u2019re all right here. If they\u2019re handing out auditions, shit yeah, I\u2019m going.
\nMD: Where do you live?
\nHR: I live in Hollywood, up the hill. I used to live here (in the office) but I bought another place a few years ago. I still have that I-work-for-a-living mindset. Music and entertainment for me have always been a journeyman\u2019s voyage. We come to town, we play, we\u2019ll see you in eight months if you show up again. It\u2019s not like some big tour to promote a single; we\u2019re not waiting for radio to do something for us. It\u2019s like Lemmy said to me once, \u201cWe\u2019re a journeyman band. We\u2019re Mot\u00f6rhead. We come to your town, we kick your ass, and we leave.\u201d That\u2019s kind of what I do. That\u2019s why in the 80s I started looking at learning a few other things to do. Because I started looking at a lot of other musicians who actually had talent\u2014I never considered myself really talented, I just think I have a lot of tenacity and I think that counts for something\u2014but I saw a lot of people with real talent not being able to pay their rent. So I said, \u201cOkay. It\u2019s a survival situation. I\u2019d better learn to do more than this music stuff. That\u2019s when I started going to auditions for voiceover work and acting and really working on the talking shows in an effort to stay lively.
\nOne of my heroes is a fellow named Man Ray, who I\u2019m sure you\u2019re familiar with. He sculpted, painted, drew, arted out. If you saw interviews with him, you\u2019d think he was a cab driver. You wouldn\u2019t believe this was the great Man Ray. He was just this guy\u2014like when you listen to Henry Miller, he sounded like he was this guy who came in to fix your toilet. (Effects Brooklyn accent.) \u201cI\u2019m a writtah\u2026\u201d You look at a guy like that, he lived, and he painted, and he wrote; that\u2019s kind of like what I go after.
\nMD: Do you have any advice for musicians who wanna do what they want to do?
\nHR: To do what you want to do, you have to be very tough. Especially in this day and age. Not tough like being insensitive; you have to be tough like Miles Davis who protected his art. He was very protective of that thing that he had; he was like a swan\u2014it\u2019s this very graceful creature but if you mess with it, it gets very pugnacious. So on some level you have to have a bit of that. If you\u2019re going to take this kind of sensitivity into the brutality of the
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\nentertainment business, you\u2019ll take some knocks. Because if you\u2019re any good, down the road a piece, you\u2019re going to be fairly into rising to the occasion.
\nI think these days a lot of bands who do their first tour on a Privo bus with shiny new gear are missing out on a lot of things that will keep them in the game after the blush is off the rose. Because you never maintain your popularity\u2014everyone has an arc. Or ebbs and flows. Guys like Neil Young, they just keep making records and it\u2019s never like an up or down thing, it\u2019s like a high-tide, low-tide thing. He\u2019s just going to keep making records whether you buy them or not. Neil Young makes records. That\u2019s what he does. He doesn\u2019t care. He\u2019s busy making records and doing tours. It\u2019s not an up and down thing for him: It\u2019s an ebb and flow thing. But you just have to stay tough through the vicissitude. All the greats, no matter what, they just keep working. Those bands that were hydro-grown through the Clear Channel thing, they have no roots to the ground, so when push comes to shove, they have no anchor.
\nTake a guy like Fred Durst, who I\u2019ve got no problem with, I\u2019m not trying to make fun. Here\u2019s a guy who\u2019s not untalented, but he just came out and BAM! He was huge. No one stays that huge for that long. You have your moment, and your demographic grows up and starts breeding and moves to the suburbs, and you\u2019re left to either cross over to a new audience or not. There will be a time when he plays to half of the people he played to at his peak. Then a third. It will be interesting to see how guys like Marilyn Manson\u2026will he be in love with music enough\u2026there again, another guy I\u2019m not putting down. I think he\u2019s amazing, but when you\u2019re born and bred on MTV, will you have enough love of music to be back in little clubs where they may have not even started or were there for a tiny bit of time? And to me, that\u2019s the measure of the musician\u2014if you\u2019re still into it enough to ride that wave down, enough to do it even when you\u2019re not fab anymore. That I think is a real measure. Lemmy\u2014 he fascinates me. I\u2019m no expert on Mot\u00f6rhead, but this guy, who lives right up this street, he saw the Beatles play at the Cavern Club. Who roadied for Hendrix. He once said something to me that was mind blowing. He said, \u201cI remember before there was rock and roll.\u201d I said \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d He said, \u201cI remember before there was rock and roll. There were just Rosemary Clooney records. And then there was Elvis. And WHAM! Our lives changed.\u201d
\nLemmy was there for that. And then all these decades. And there was a time when Mot\u00f6rhead was on everyone\u2019s shirt. Now? No. But he still goes out and does it. That\u2019s the real thing. Guys like Iggy, that\u2019s what they do.
\nThese days, the current culture that\u2019s directed at young people\u2026the audience is acting the way the record companies want them to\u2026in that, it\u2019s very easy to find a pretty girl to sing, or a pretty boy to sing, with cheekbones that can jump up and down. Boys and girls look like that for about three summers. Pert, lean, handsome, or whatever\u2014the things that make their age group flock towards them. So instead of finding them talented, the record companies have discovered that it\u2019s easier to find pretty people than talented people. So they\u2019ve created this popular culture that\u2019s a Menudo effect. This Avril Levine\u2014who I have no problems with\u2014but here\u2019s this teenage girl with her big record\u2014will they still love her tomorrow? We\u2019ll see. Or is she just this thing that was just hydro-grown by the industry to look good for a couple of summers and then be trotted away and dropped so they can install the
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\nnext one that has a one-and-a-half or two album career arc. (Claps his hands together.) Gone! And these days you have an audience that downloads music because they get so much overpriced mediocre stuff thrown at them. \u201cTwenty-two dollars for this? Fuck you!\u201d Then they go to the computer and download it.
\nMD: Does it bother you when people download your music? HR: No. Not at all. It means at least someone\u2019s hearing it.
\nPeople come up to me and go, \u201cDude, I downloaded your new talking record\u2026and, oops! Oh shit!\u201d (Rollins laughs.) And I\u2019m like, \u201cIt\u2019s okay. It\u2019s fine.\u201d
\nMD: Avril Levine complains in interviews about Britney Spears, saying \u201cShe\u2019s not the real deal; I am.\u201d But Avril\u2019s songs are co-written by the same people who write Britney\u2019s songs. It\u2019s like that whole Coke vs. Pepsi, Nike vs. Adidas bullshit.
\nHR: The major label industry and major entertainment industry are turning everything into Coke and Pepsi. Thankfully, there\u2019s people like Dischord Records, Touch and Go, and Ipecac\u2014Mike Patton\u2019s label. People like Cory Rusk of Touch and Go, and Ian MacKaye, the real deal, the real guys who are putting out amazing records on their labels. The best stuff Dischord has ever done is out this year. The new El Guapo record is amazing; the Q and not U record is amazing. The Black Eyes record is amazing. Have you heard this stuff?
\nMD: No. I did get the remixed \u201cFlex Your Head\u201d and listened to that stuff for the first time in eight or nine years.
\nHR: They\u2019re putting out some stuff that\u2019s like\u2026you\u2019ve never heard music like this. It\u2019s new music. They\u2019re doing great stuff. They\u2019re selling great music for really cheap.
\nThat\u2019s a thing we do here. We sell a double CD of a talking record for 10 bucks with one dollar of it going to a different charity. Our company\u2014we work five days a week here and we contribute money five days a week. The Southern Poverty Law Center, who battles the Klan through litigation; the Hollygrove Children\u2019s Shelter down the street from here for kids; we work with Partnership for a Drug-Free America, The West Memphis Three, and continually put in a dollar from each thing we sell.
\nThere\u2019s a lot of labels that put out a lot of cool stuff for the right price to turn people on to good things and not bilk them and not take their money. So all is not lost. There are good bands playing in every city every night. There are cool labels in every state in America. And a lot of honest, switched-on people who do well, mean well, and are dedicated to keeping that good thing happening. So for all the Avrils and Britney Spears in the world, there is another choice. The danger is, in my opinion, young people who only see their access to music, and I specify music, being MTV or some Clear Channel mafia.
\nMD: They\u2019re buying it all up.
\nHR: They own it all. You\u2019ll wake up tomorrow morning with a Clear Channel chip in you that they installed while you were sleeping.
\nI was just in Europe, and Clear Channel is buying up venues there. Venues I\u2019ve been playing in for 21 years are now Clear Channel venues. I\u2019m like, \u201cCome on! What are you doing?\u201d
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\n(Laughs.) Now the Clear Channel rep in Amsterdam is telling me how it is. I\u2019m like, \u201cThanks. I\u2019ve been playing this place since you were eight years old. And you\u2019re telling me how it is now? All right.\u201d (Laughs more.) \u201cMeet the new boss, same as the old boss.\u201d
\nFor me there is a danger with young people, and I\u2019ll specify young people, who will not get the chance to check out Blonde on Blonde by Dylan, or check out Leadbelly or Coltrane. Or a tenth of what\u2019s in that room (points at his record collection): King Crimson, Black Sabbath, all kinds of neat stuff, all kinds of great reggae, jazz, big band; there\u2019s so much good music in the world, you\u2019re never gonna hear one percent of it. From every country, there\u2019s musicians who will blow your mind.
\nThe idea that this young person who\u2019s like 17 years old who should be this intellectual sponge, just uploading knowledge and culture and having this amazing emotional roller coaster would be into three bands because he liked their video\u2026. That to me is losing the plot. When there\u2019s a lot more great stuff out there to read, not just Stephen King, not just a book with a movie still on the front. When there\u2019s great music to be heard, from before your mama was born. Music that people actually got razored in the face for playing because they were black. Wrong color in this country to be Ornette Coleman, to be a musical genius. So a lot of people bled through the eyes to make a lot of good music and a lot of great culture. A lot of great writers were killed by Stalin for stuff they wrote\u2026.
\n[At this point the tape ran out on my Dictaphone. Rollins did something very cool that I\u2019ve never seen an interviewee do: As he heard the tape recorder snap off after 45 minutes, he picked it up without looking at it (he kept his eyes on me the entire interview), turned the tape over without pausing in his story, pressed Record (again without looking at it), and set it back down and talked for 20 more minutes.]
\n\u2026for a while. That sucks. And I think at the end of the day, culture loses. Watering hole culture\u2026the water starts receding. Record companies with less life span for an artist, in the present day, major labels, which is now kinda the last place you want to be in music, like the last place you want to effect political change is in political office. Here\u2019s a situation that seems to be a working engine for the anti-music anti-culture. It seems to be using less colors, less nuance, less flavoring in the food. It\u2019s more strip-mall culture. I think Americans buy into that. It\u2019s how we\u2019re raised. And the way the music industry now feeds into American consumerist culture. You propose something different and you\u2019ll be surprised how conservative young people can be. You get some really amazing attitudes coming back at you, real conservative plot loss. I\u2019m like, \u201cGee, who have you been listening to?\u201d
\nBut thankfully there\u2019s a lot of cool independent people. Like a lot of the people who are on here\u2026(gestures to a copy of DIY or DIE: How To Survive as an Independent Artist.) The attitude to put something else across. To run counter to what\u2019s going on.
\nLike J Mascis who has never made a bad record. He\u2019s a great songwriter who writes beautiful music. There\u2019s people like that all over the place. A guy like J, if he sent in the record that got him on Warner Brothers, \u201cGreen Mind,\u201d if he sent that in now, they would just go, \u201cWho is this guy?\u201d
\nHenry Rollins Chapter 18 463
\nMD: Some artists have done that as a test. Platinum artists, just for kicks, have sent in a demo under a different name to their labels and gotten rejected. You read that \u201cProblem with Music\u201d article by Steve Albini?
\nHR: No. To me, one of the problems with music is Steve Albini. I just think he makes all his records sound the same. An asexual insect with no balls. How he can emasculate rock music is incredible, with the same scalpel every time. And you can tell him I said that. Pretty talented, smart guy, and he fights the good fight. I just think his production is bullshit. He\u2019s definitely on the good side of things. He hates the corporate crap. I just think his production\u2019s really corny.
\nMD: I\u2019m out of questions. Thanks. When we were finished, I turned the Dictaphone off and we talked for about 15 more minutes. Part of it was him saying that \u201cAny young people who are reading your book should know that you can make great records without spending a fortune.\u201d He mentioned Inner Ear Studios in Virginia. I told him that I\u2019d recorded four records there myself, and got on his computer and showed him where to download my cover of \u201cLong Black Veil\u201d with Ian singing backup on it. He said it was great. He smiled and said, \u201cI\u2019ve never downloaded a song before in my life.<\/p>\n

Tiffany Couser and I proofread this article a few times and then I e-mailed Rollins
\nback and asked if he wanted to take a pass through it to check to make sure we got it
\nall right.
\nHe wrote right back and said \u201cSure.\u201d An hour later I had the final result back.
\nIt was Memorial Day. That\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve noticed about most thriving self-employed
\nD.I.Y. folk: they don\u2019t really take vacations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was interviewing Henry Rollins at his LA office for my non-fiction how-to book “$30 Music School”, I had a little\u00a0Dictaphone micro-cassette recorder. We did an hour. Half way though it, my Dictaphone clicked off, a sound that if you’ve been around those devices , you know it means the tape is at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biptunia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biptunia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biptunia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biptunia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biptunia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biptunia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/biptunia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12183,"href":"https:\/\/biptunia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12181\/revisions\/12183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biptunia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biptunia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biptunia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}