Skip to content
Henry Rollins

File:Henry_Rollins_-_Wacken_Open_Air_2016_02.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ318509· pop 44· linked from 825 articles

Henry Rollins

Sign in to save

Also known as Henry Garfield, Henry Lawrence Garfield

American musician

OverviewAI-generated

Henry Rollins is an American musician, writer, actor, and blogger born on February 13, 1961, in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the group State of Alert and has worked with SST Records. His musical output spans hardcore punk, heavy metal, alternative metal, and spoken word, with his primary instrument being the voice. Rollins began his professional career in 1980 and is an agnostic who speaks English.

As an author, Rollins has published numerous works, including *Get in the Van - On the Road With Black Flag* and *A Dull Roar What I Did On My Summer Deracination 2006*. His bibliography also includes titles such as *The best of 2.13.61 Publications*. He attended American University and maintains an official website.

Synthesized by Vinony from 42 facts across 9 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Wikiquote, Europeana Sparql, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1961
Works
36

Top works

  • Henry Rollins, Billy Childish, Jello Biafra, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
  • Henry Rollins
  • The best of 2.13.61 Publications
  • A Dull Roar What I Did On My Summer Deracination 2006
  • Get in the Van - On the Road With Black Flag

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Acting · Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Henry Rollins (born Henry Lawrence Garfield; February 13, 1961) is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, writer, publisher, actor, radio DJ, and activist. After performing for the short-lived Washington D.C.-based band State of Alert in 1980, Rollins fronted the California hardcore punk band Black Flag from August 1981 until early 1986. Following the band's breakup, Rollins soon…

Known for

  • Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt — Self2025
  • Uma Retrospectiva Definitiva de Ween — Self2025
  • Harley Flanagan: Wired for Chaos — Self2025
  • Hendrie — Self2024
  • We Lost Our Human — Bacon Witch / Bumblebee Dad (voice)2023
  • WINO: The Documentary2023
  • Royal Crackers — President (voice)2023
  • Music — Ebo's Neighbor2021
  • Analog Love — Himself2021
  • Freakscene: The Story of Dinosaur Jr. — himself2021

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United States
Active from
1961
alternative metalcomedyhardcore punkspoken word

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
88,621
Total plays
1,294,680

Tags

spoken wordpunkcomedyrockhardcore

Henry Rollins (born February 13, 1961 as Henry Lawrence Garfield) is an American Grammy Award-winning alternative rock singer and songwriter, spoken word artist, book author (prose and poetry), radio and TV personality, occasional movie actor, comedian, and voice-over artist. He is perhaps best known for his work with the hardcore punk band Black Flag from 1981 to 1986, and for leading the Rollins Band since 1987. Critic Steve Huey decribes Rollins as "a post-punk renaissance man . <a href="ht

via Last.fm · Henry Rollins

Quotes

  • You always know the mark of a coward. A coward hides behind freedom. A brave person stands in front of freedom and defends it for others.
  • Don't hide behind the Constitution or the Bible. If you're against gay marriage, just be honest, put a scarlet 'H' on your shirt, and say, 'I am a homophobe!'
  • If I let you, you would make me destroy myself. But in order to survive you, I must first survive myself. I can sink no further and I cannot forgive you. There's no choice but to confront you, to engage you, to erase you. I've gone to great lengths to expand my threshold of pain. I will use my mistakes against you. There's no other choice. Shameless now. Nameless now. Nothing now. No one now. But my soul must be iron cause my fear is naked. I'm naked and fearless - and my fear is naked!
  • Listen to the stage manager and get on stage when they tell you to. No one has time for the rock star act. None of the techs backstage care if you're David Bowie or the milkman. When you act like a jerk, they are completely unimpressed with the infantile display that you might think comes with your dubious status. They were there hours before you building the stage, and they will be there hours after you leave tearing it down. They should get your salary, and you should get theirs.
  • I got three letters today telling me that I'm god. Why can't I pay the rent?
  • My pen knows what to do. I close my eyes and I see this girl who glows. A girl who radiates. When she smiles, she beams. She warms my heart. I open my eyes with a feeling of floating past all the garbage around me. I will emerge unscathed because I will not endeavor to hide myself from whatever is coming. Bring on the worst. I welcome it with open arms.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
Henry Lawrence Garfield , ( 1961-02-13 ) February 13, 1961 (age 65) , Washington, D.C. , U.S.
Genres
Hardcore punk alternative metal spoken word
Occupations
Singer writer actor speaker presenter author comedian activist
Works
Full list of works
Years active
1980–present
Label
2.13.61
Formerly of
Black Flag Rollins Band State of Alert
Website
henryrollins .com

via Wikipedia infobox

Works in European collections

1 object attributed to Henry Rollins, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

~36 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Henry Lawrence Garfield (born February 13, 1961), known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, comedian, and presenter. After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1980, Rollins fronted the California hardcore band Black Flag from 1981 to 1986. Following the band's breakup, he established the record label and publishing company 2.13.61 to release his spoken word albums, and formed the Rollins Band, which toured with a number of lineups from 1987 to 2003 and in 2006.

Rollins has hosted numerous radio shows, such as Harmony in My Head on Indie 103, and television shows such as The Henry Rollins Show and 120 Minutes. He had recurring dramatic roles in the second season of Sons of Anarchy as A.J. Weston, in the final two seasons of the animated series The Legend of Korra as Zaheer, and has also had roles in several films. He has campaigned for various political causes in the United States, including the promotion of gay rights, World Hunger Relief, the West Memphis Three, and an end to all war. He currently hosts a weekly radio show on KCRW, is a regular columnist for Rolling Stone Australia, and was a regular columnist for LA Weekly.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Henry Rollins” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (6)