Henry Rollins

If I took Henry Rollins out for dinner, I think everyone passing by our table would stop and stare. Rollins is heavily tattooed, short, built like a square and looks like he could hoist at least two wheels of a Volkswagen Beetle off the ground. He's like the Chuck Norris of the music world, if you ask me.

I remember seeing him in concert when I was in university and though my friend and I made sure we were a good 100 feet away from the flowing mosh pit, the one thing that couldn't be diffused was the ferocious intensity he exuded when he bellowed into his microphone.

Though Beavis and Butthead swear that chicks dig Henry Rollins because of the size of his neck, he is someone I admire because he seems to have carved out his life by being pragmatic. A devoted fan of the punk band, Bad Brains, he went to a number of their shows, and then one day asked someone in the band if he could come on stage and sing one of his favorite songs. They allowed him onstage, and Henry's singing career was picking up steam.

Later on, he heavily followed the band Black Flag around the East Coast and let them stay at his place when they came through the Washington, D.C. area. They became friends and again, Rollins was invited to sing a song at one of their shows. Unbeknownst to Rollins, the singer and guitar player of the band was looking to step down and focus only on guitar; hey presto, Rollins became the singer of a band he really liked. It gives me hope that all I have to do is just keep asking random people if I could write for their music magazine and one day I'll meet someone who actually runs one.

He also is a very prolific writer and I really admire him for starting his own publishing company, 2.13.61 Publications, so his writings could reach a larger audience. (Looking back on my last comment, maybe I need to take a lesson from the Henry Rollins School of Business Management.) Henry has gone on many spoken word tours, and published many books, filled with poems, short stories and observations about life on the road.

One of the biggest things I admire Henry for is that he has been involved in the cause of the West Memphis Three for the past 14 years. While he rails against people like Bono for being pretentious and unoriginal, Rollins himself has realized what his star power can do for a cause. As this is a music blog and neither a true-crime nor political blog, I won't go into too many details, but the West Memphis Three have been held in prison for the past 14 years for a horrific crime some say they did not commit, convicted on evidence that was marginal at best and by a community that may have been tainted with bias. He is also a champion of gay rights and an outspoken critic of the Iraq War.

Rollins has come a long way from his military-school and Haagen-Dazs management days, and has done everything in his life in the true punk-rock DIY spirit. While I don't own much of his music yet, I definitely admire him as an artist and person.