Kerrang! March 22/97 Interview...
The Last Word
The ultimate questions on life, sex and beating yourself up. This week,
Henry Rollins spills the beans to Paul Branigan...
LAST GOOD ROCK BAND YOU SAW?
"The Dictators, who reformed to play one night at (legendary New York
punk club) CBGB's. I was standing next to Joey Ramone and he looked down
on me and said, 'These guys are great right?'. And I was, like,
'Yeah!'. They were just smoking. That's the kind of thing I'd like to
have on tour with me-no-frills, straight up rock 'n' roll done by guys
who look like they should be in jail. They encored with 'Search And
Destroy' and 'Sonic Reducer' and it was totally slamming. 'Sonic
Reducer' should be the national anthem the way those guys play it.
LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
"Probably in December. I had a dream about a friend of mine, and I woke
up crying because I think I was crying in the dream."
LAST TIME YOU WERE EMBARASSED?
"I was walking down the street with this girl and I was about to come to
England to do some press. But I had to turn in this article for a
magazine so I was thinking about my Editor and worrying about how I was
going to get her the piece. Then I met Diamanda Galas and went to
introduce the girl to her...but I got her name wrong, and called her by
the editor's name instead! She was like, 'No, my name is Anne.'
Bearing in mind I'd had sex with the girl an hour, before it sounded
really bad."
LAST TIME YOU WANTED SOMETHING YOU COULDN'T HAVE?
"About every 30 seconds with all these women I see on the street!
Spending three days in Scandanavia last week was brutal-beautiful women
everywhere and it was just denied! Denied! Denied!
LAST TIME YOU DID SOMETHING YOU REGRETTED?
"I volunteered funds for somebody's project and it's proving very hard to
get that money back. It was a lot of money, and not having it is putting
my companies in jeopardy. That has caused considerable strain. I
thought the guy was my friend and now I'm not so sure."
LAST GOOD MOVIE YOU SAW?
"'Fargo.; F**king awesome movie, everything about it was excellent. The
Coen brothers never miss. Flea from the Chili Peppers jsut faxed me to
let me know that he's in the new Coen brothers movie. Flea does so much
cool stuff it's not even true. He's always doing something really
interesting-he's a good guy."
LAST TIME YOU GAVE MONEY TO CHARITY?
"I kocked some money to an orphanage in LA last December. I like to help
them OUT when I can."
LAST SPORTS EVENT YOU ATTENDED?
"A cricket match between the Rollins Band and Sonic Youth in either
Sydney or Melbourne. We lost. Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth bassist/vocalist)
whacked the shit out of that ball. She was unbelievable."
LAST PERSON YOU'D WANT TO BE TRAPPED IN A LIFT WITH?
"Darryl Gates, the former chief of the LAPD. What a pig, what a f**king
failure. He's so far down the food chain you can't get your foot down
low enoug for that rung."
LAST PERSON WHO REALLY INSPIRED YOU?
"I get inspired by people all the time. I met James Brown a couple of
weeks ago and he was really cool to me. His place in history is
inspiring to me; what he means and the music he has made is utterly
inspiring. That he took the time out to be so cool to me was great and
helped me to deal better with people who want to talk with me."
LAST GOOD BOOK YOU READ?
"God, I read so many books. I've just finished a biography on Hemingway
which is really good. It gave Hemingway credit where he deserved it but
ripped him where he needed to be ripped. I love critical biographies on
writers and musicians I like."
LAST TIME YOU HURT YOURSELF ON STAGE?
"In Brazil in 1994. The scar is still there right beside my eye from
when I kneed myself in the head. It was classic, I don't need anyone
else to beat me up-I can do it all myself. Over the years I've been
concussed, lost teeth, broken my nose, had burns, had hardcore
electrocutions...Oh yes, I know pain onstage."
HOW LONG CAN YOU LAST?
"In sex? I can last pretty much as long as I want, depending on the
woman. There's this one girl in LA and I can last as long as I want with
her, but there's this other in New York who just has so much control.
I'm like, 'Don't do that unless you want this to be all over.' I've had
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