Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins is a singer, songwriter, author, actor, raconteur, activist, disc jockey, and TV/radio personality. He is best known as the lead vocalist for Black Flag between the summer of 1981 and August of 1986, when they initially disbanded, and afterward with his own outfit, the Rollins Band, between 1987 and 2002.

His official recorded debut was under his real name, Henry Garfield, with the band S.O.A. (State Of Alert), The band recorded two demo tapes, the highlights of which compromised the band’s lone EP to be released in its short lifetime, No Policy. Rollins financed the recording and initial pressing of EP on his own with money he earned while managing an ice cream store. The EP was the second release on Dischord Records. Outtakes from those two sessions can be heard on the Flex Your Head compilation, and the entirety of the first demo session was later released archivally by Dischord in 2014 as First Demo 12/29/80.

Rollins became Black Flag’s fourth and most predominant vocalist in 1981 after being invited to audition for the band by then-vocalist Dez Cadena and band founders Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski. His debut with the band, Damaged, came out that December. Soon becoming the face of the band in interviews, he subsequently sang lead vocals, and often contributed as a songwriter, on all of Black Flag’s output until their disbandment in August 1986. Concurrently with Black Flag’s growing profile, he began giving spoken word performances.

Rollins began his solo career by recruiting guitarist and fellow D.C. native and musician Chris Haskett and embarking to Leeds, England (where Haskett was living at the time) to record his first solo album Hot Animal Machine. Soon after its release, Rollins and Haskett formed the Rollins Band with the former rhythm section of Greg Ginn’s side project Gone, bassist Andrew Weiss and drummer Sim Cain, and began a relentless touring and recording schedule that later included a spot on the first Lollapalooza touring festival and major label deals with Imago Records (a deal that ended acrimoniously with a legal battle after two albums, despite a Grammy-nominated hit single with “Liar” and a gold-selling album, Weight) and Dreamworks Records.

Rollins quietly folded the first version of Rollins Band in 1998, and intended to do what was intended to be a solo album with the band Mother Superior, a band he had encountered when meeting guitarist/singer Jim Wilson at a record store the latter worked at. His management encouraged him to release the subsequent album, Get Some Go Again, as Rollins Band rather than as Henry Rollins & Mother Superior. This version of the band released several albums together for both Dreamworks and for 2.13.61.

Rollins' last official musical offering was Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs To Benefit The West Memphis Three, an album featuring Rollins and Mother Superior backing a variety of guest vocalists (including Lemmy Kilmister, Mike Patton, Iggy Pop, Exene Cervenka, and former Black Flag members Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski and Kira Roessler) on various renditions of Black Flag songs. Since then, Rollins has concentrated on writing, spoken word performances, television and movie work (including The Henry Rollins Show for IFC and 10 Things You Didn’t Know About History for the History Channel), and his own radio show, Harmony In My Head, which began on Indie 103 in Los Angeles for a few years before moving to public Radio station KPFA, where the show continues to air weekly.

He is also a published author and the owner of his own book company, 2.13.61, which he founded while he was still in Black Flag. He has also done USO tours and been a vocal supporter of various causes including anti-war efforts, the overturning of the conviction of the West Memphis Three, and LGBT rights.