Punk rock icon Henry Rollins recently appeared on the Australian TV show “Lateline” to discuss his political views. Several excerpts from the interview follow:
On combining writing and acting with spoken-word tours which blend self-deprecating comedy with acidic attacks on the U.S. administration:
“All I’m saying is I’m basically taking out a PSA for America. I’m just saying when you see the U.S. President, it’s a comedy show with lethal consequences, and no, that not all of us voted for him… And I won’t say anything about it for at least four or five more hours.”
On the fact that he sees the criticism of the U.S. Government as part of the American political tradition:
“I love being an American who’s outspoken, who’s critical of the Bush administration and quite honestly, we all know no-one gives a damn what I think, but I love talking loud and saying what I think because I don’t see anyone in the news media doing it. Where’s the backbone of these guys?”
On speaking to U.S. troops on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan:
“You meet some of these guys and what did they do that week? They helped an Afghan farmer irrigate his land; they put up power lines; they helped build a school so now there’s the first literacy program this village has ever seen — ever. And they’re like, ‘Sir, we’re helping these kids — we’re handing out toothbrushes, we’re teaching them how to floss.’ And like, all the little kids love these guys and you see that these are good young people doing — helping.”
On being listed in the top five USO performers by U.S. military personnel and keeping the political side out of his performances on military bases:
“If you’re a young man in Baghdad and you are literally getting shot at and mortared everyday, you don’t need some guy with tattoos coming in and telling you that the reason you’re there is bogus. You need to hear, ‘You guys are great. Get home in one piece. Everyone misses you, and they basically want to know what it was like working with Al Pacino in ‘Heat’!”
On being asked to sign a bomb in Afghanistan:
“Do I want to sign a bomb? Hell, no. Will my signage of the bomb — will it make the bomb do something else? Will it explode with John Coltrane CDs and free lunch? No. Will it make the bomb go into outer space? No. It’ll go that way, and it’s going to blow up, no matter what I write on the bomb or not write on the bomb. This is something I did not want to do, but I had to make a split decision — do I show this guy out in front of everyone and just go, ‘No thanks’ and have his boys go, ‘Oh, he can be trumped by some, some…’ — I can’t do that.”
