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CULTURE | USA: Punk Legend Henry Rollins on Veterans, Music, and War

January 2011  |  Henry Rollings, interviewed by Daniel J. Gerstle

Humanitarian Bazaar Magazine (known then as HELO Magazine)

 

Henry Rollins, best known for his role as the singer of American punk bands, Black Flag and the Henry Rollins Group, has long been involved in peace activism, literature, and about everything else humans take on. Lately, he’s been touring with the USO and working with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association (IAVA) to rally support for American veterans. Mr. Rollins shared his thoughts on music as catharsis, opposing war while supporting troops, and more.

 

 

HELO: How has music been an emotional catharsis for you as an American, a rocker, a USO figure? How do you think it’s role is evolving in our culture to serve as a potential trans-national language?

 

HR: Music has certainly been a way to get feelings out and break through things for me. Music has always been a thing that needs no passport. As a musician, you get a pass on things even when your country might not be acting well. Artist types often get a pass.

 

I would rather not get the pass and deal with what is happening in the real world. I have never done any music on a USO tour. As far as a musician being someone that speaks a global language, I don’t think there’s anything new or emerging about that though.

 

HELO: Given your work with the USO, IAVA, and on behalf of veterans, what are the most important things people can do to contribute to the reintegration of war veterans back to the States according to your personal experiences and beliefs?

 

HR: I think they need to realize that veterans speak a different language when they return. As hard as they work to reconnect with society, we need to also be working to help that connection happen. It can’t simply be them on their own dealing with things.

 

IAVA is now helping families and friends of vets gain a better understanding of what these men and women might be going through upon their return. It will be a factor in America in the upcoming years. So many men and women spent more time in Iraq and Afghanistan than other conflicts America has been in.

 

It’s a much different situation than what Americans have dealt with before. There are soldiers who go back again and again for years. America will have a lot to deal with and without the civilian population knowing a few things, it won’t be any easier.

 

HELO: How do you personally reconcile, like so many of our contributors and readers, this devotion to those soldiers who sacrifice so much, with that gutteral opposition to war felt by those of us who’ve seen the blood and scars? Obviously, it’s not one or the other, but many people still wrestle this issue, what about you?

 

HR: I don’t agree with war. I don’t think America should have gone into Iraq. I think it was a fool’s errand and the people who dispatched the soldiers there should go to a court of law, answer very direct questions with all honesty and see what justice makes of that.

 

The soldiers are not the ones I disagree with. They do not start wars, it is constitutionally impossible for them to do so. It’s the orders that I don’t like. The soldiers are great and brave and have my support. So for me, there’s no wrestling involved. It is all completely clear to me.

 

HELO: Any current behind the scenes feelings about how you get yourself motivated and prepared mentally for landing in a war zone on your USO trips, and relaxing despite the tension of threats while over there?

 

HR: I didn’t do any preparation, really. I just went where the USO asked me to go and got on with it. Some of the locations were less than safe but so is Detroit. I have nearly been killed a couple of times but it was always in America.

 

The first time I went to Walter Reed and hung out with men with their bodies torn apart took a moment to adjust to but since then, I have been back there and to Bethesda Naval and seen men in all kinds of states. The effect it had on me was that I wanted to see members of the Bush administration in court, telling the truth and then walked away to serve out their life sentences.

 

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