HENRY ROLLINS Talks Politics, War And Music

March 16, 2010, 14 years ago

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HENRY ROLLINS recently spoke with The Gazette’s Jordan Zivitz where they discussed his tour, politics, music and whatever else came to Rollins’s mind. An excerpt follows:

Gazette: The last time I saw you here in Montreal, it was on the evening of the Iraq invasion in 2003. Do you remember being here for that?

Henry: "Oh yes. Very, very clearly."

Gazette: How much do you remember about where you were in the world on days like that? Are tours a way for you to mark time, and to keep track of what’s going on in the world?

Rollins: "Oh, yeah. I mean, we’re on the move and we’re looking at the news, and we were watching all of that unfold on television non-stop, keeping abreast of the thing as much as we could."

Gazette: I remember you coming on stage and talking about how it was someone’s job to come up with the snazzy visuals accompanying the countdown to the invasion on CNN.

Rollins: "Yeah, I had nothing but contempt for all of that. I thought it was such a manipulation of Americans. I thought it was such a racket. As war is. And that one was just incredibly obscene. And crass. The president of the United States lied to the people of the United States, and a lot of us went for it."

Gazette: Did you have any feeling back then that it would still be going on so far down the line?

Rollins: "No. no. I was so horrified by the whole thing, I didn’t know what to make of it. I didn’t know what its long-range implications would be."

Gazette: When you’re talking about these things on stage, are you trying to stay purely in the moment of what’s actually going on? Having seen you live a few times, you don’t seem interested in prognosticating about what’s going to happen.

Rollins: "Unless there’s humour involved. If it’s something lighter-weight, you can have fun with it, but that was nothing but life and death. So there’s nothing to do there but be horrified by it all. But I’m in South Carolina right now; you have a governor who says 'I’m going hiking in the Appalachians' and goes down to Argentina to be with his girlfriend. What’s the shakeout of that? You think, well, he’s going to meet the frying pan upside the head when he comes home. The angry wife. So it’s kind of funny, because no one died. But something like the invasion/occupation of Iraq is just bloodbath for oil. And I was in Montreal for Night One of this charade, this awful thing. You knew what was coming a few days before it did. I mean, this was unavoidable. What was hard for me to take – and maybe I’m just naïve – I just didn’t think my government would lie to me on that epic of a scale."

Head here to read the interview in its entirety.

As previously reported, Rollins is supporting his new spoken word CD, Spoken Word Guy 11-03-08 Alexandria, VA. Rollins is currently on the road. Catch his spoken word performances at the following venues:

March

22 - Montreal, QC - Le National
23 - Ottawa, ON - Bronson Centre
24 - Kingston, ON - Sydenham St United Church
25 - Kitchener, ON - Conrad Centre
26 - Toronto, ON - Queen Elizabeth Theatre
27 - Syracuse, NY - Westcott Theater
28 - Ithaca, NY - Castaways
30 - State College, PA - State Theater
31 - Pittsburgh, PA - Hazlett Theate

April

1 - Kent, OH - Kent Stage
2 - Columbus, OH - LC Pavillon
3 - Newport, KY - Historic Southgate House
4 - Lexington, KY - Buster
5 - Bloomington, IN - Buskirk-Chumley Theater
7 - Chicago, IL - Vic Theater
8 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall Ballroom
9 - Madison, WI - Barrymore Theater
15 - Melbourne - International Comedy Festival, Melbourne Town Hall
16 - Melbourne - International Comedy Festival, Melbourne Town Hall
18 - Sydney - Comedy Festival, Enmore Theatre
19 - Sydney - Comedy Festival, Enmore Theatre
21 - Cairns - Tanks Arts Centre
22 - Brisbane - Powerhouse
25 - Wellington - The Paramount
26 - Auckland - Bruce Mason Centre
28 - Newcastle - Panthers
29 - Wollongong - Illawarra Performing Arts Centre
30 - Adelaide - Norwood Concert Hall

May

1 - Perth - Astor Theatre
2 - Perth - Astor Theatre
6 - Pretoria, South Africa - The South African State Theatre
7 - Newtown Johannesburg, South Africa - The Bassline
8 - Cape Town, South Africa - Baxter Hall

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