interview: henry rollins

As ex-frontman of both Black Flag and Rollins Band, Henry Rollins has been travelling the world for around 30 years. The singer-songwriter/spoken word artist/comedian/actor/photographer/writer has now decided to document his travels for his first book, Occupants, a visual chronicle of his journeys through countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran and North Korea, and is also filming a second mini-series for National Geographic. We managed to catch Henry Rollins at one of those rare times when he's not on the road, and we used the opportunity speak to him about photographing people in third world countries, acting roles, animal cruelty and ice cream.

Hannah Ongley: Are you in LA now? In an actual house?

Henry Rollins: Yeah but I'll be on the road for up to nine months or more. It's what I'm used to, this is what I know. So, you know, it's not a problem.

Some people say you're a loner, do you think that's a necessity when you're on the road so much?

I've always been that way, and it gets more so as I get older. A lot of the work that I do, you're just on your own. I mean writing, I don't know how you would really write with someone else ? I guess you could collaborate, but I don't ? and with photography and things like that it's kind of a solo pursuit, and I'm on stage by myself these days. So you're kind of on your own with it.

What about music? That's a collaborative, group thing?

That's true, but I don't really do it anymore.

Was being in punk bands a way to vent your anger or was it more of a trigger?

Oh, sure ? it's a positive way to release tension, it's better being in a band I reckon than going out and robbing a liquor store. Being in a band is better than doing something dangerous. I was very frustrated as a young person, and music was a good thing for me.

I'm really interested in your acting roles because they are so different to how you seem in real life. You've played a white supremacist, worn glasses and a lab coat in Johnny Mnemonic? How did you fall into those roles?

Well, they offered me them. I don't get to pick and choose, but I want to work. So when film people come at you and say, "hey, do you want to do this?", chances are I'll say yes.

Did you do the ad for the Mac Powercube?

Nope, that wasn't me.

Oh. Wikipedia said you did.

No but I do a lot of voiceovers for commercials. If you watch American television for about an hour, chances are you might hear me.

You do have a very authoritative voice, like that one you always hear during movie previews.

It's the voice that sells you things.

For things like that do you approach them or do they come to you?

I have an agent and they get paid when you get paid, so it's in their best interests to find you a bunch of auditions. So I go into auditions for a whole range of different parts. And you go up against some really talented people, it's a really competitive line of work because the pay is really good and a lot of people are after it. And so I audition for a whole lot and I get very little. But I get some, and it allows me to work.

Can you tell us a bit more about your new book Occupants?

Well it's my first photo book that I've ever done. It's photos from 2003 to 2010 and it goes all over the world, all these places I travel. And over the years I would bring better camera gear, so going through the book one will notice that the quality of the photos gets better and better, and by the end of the book it's 21MP with a professional camera. So never having done a photo book but getting quite a bit of experience out of the world, getting to take a lot of photos, I thought, well, maybe I'll do a photo book. That'll keep me awake. It was a lot of work, you know, to process every photograph, and every photo in the book has a caption, and this writing took an extraordinary amount of time.

Do the people in the photographs mind you taking their pictures? One in particular that caught my eye was the boy with the Osama Bin Laden T shirt.

Yeah, there were people around him trying to take photos and they would ask "can I take a photo" and he would shake his head "no". I assumed he would say no to me as well so I basically got my settings as best as I could against the setting sun and just turned around with my camera up to my face and shot two photos of him and he saw me and walked away.

It's really striking.

It's weird that you can buy a T shirt with Bin Laden's face on it. But I showed that photograph to some people and they said they actually saw that T shirt quite a bit in parts of Africa.

What about your upcoming National Geographic series Animal Underworld? You've long been an activist for human rights, are animal rights the next logical step?

The three specials we just shot were about the interaction between man and animal. Animals as food or intoxicant, animals in worship and animals as pets. They are very interesting I think. We saw some animals in less-than-good environments, that was hard to take. I am spread pretty thinly these days and I don't know if I could take on anything else, but sticking up for animals comes quite naturally.

What do you think about shows like Man vs Wild where exotic animals are eaten for entertainment?

I don't like the idea of animals as entertainment items, besides perhaps alligator wrestling. The gators don't get hurt and it's always the human who is at risk, which is fantastic, of course. Animals eaten for survival is ok, if it's down to that, then I reckon you have to keep living.

I remember seeing on Rove once that you had Thanksgiving dinner with William Shatner ? who I think is amazing ? and I find it so funny to imagine. What are you doing this Thanksgiving?

I really like Shatner, he is a very fun person to be around. This year, I will be off the road on that day. I won't do anything holiday oriented. I live alone so, it being a holiday, I will most likely be working on something.

Some people say a person's favorite flavour of ice cream can tell a lot about their personality. What is your favorite flavour of H