In 1980, Henry Rollins was a teenager living in Arlington, Virginia, USA, just over the river from Washington, DC. He worked as the shift manager for a Haagen-Dazs ice cream shop near Georgetown University, and was a huge fan of a Southern California punk rock band called Black Flag. One day, Henry and his friend Ian MacKaye (who later formed Fugazi) drove to New York City to see Black Flag play at the Peppermint Lounge. They played later at a small club down the street, and Henry jumped on stage and took the mike for a song. A few days later, Henry was called back to New York to audition for the band. Henry spent the next six years riding in vans, sleeping in the back of trucks, getting beaten and mauled on stage, and fronting the baddest, most primal rock and roll band in the history of the world. Since 1986, Henry has enjoyed a more pleasant lifestyle and career as a singer. He is a published (and often lucid) poet. His band, Rollins Band, was a highlight of the Woodstock '94 concert. His autobiography, Get In The Van, is available in print and as a self-narrated compact disc. He has written several articles for Details, an American magazine.
Founded the record labels InfiniteZero, 213CD, and more recently, the "District Line" label, which will focus on rare and unreleased music from Washington DC area artists. Founder of 2.13.61, a record label and publishing company. Sang in early hardcore punk band Black Flag. Started working out when a friend of his was jumped and beaten. In December of 1991, in their shared house in Venice, California, his best friend Joe Cole (son of actor Dennis Cole) was shot and killed during a robbery attempt. The crime remains unsolved and was featured on Unsolved Mysteries. Lives off Hollywood Blvd in the Hollywood foothills, California. Among the musical artists he admires least: Depeche Mode, Bruce Springsteen and U2 (which he says has the worst rhythm section he's ever heard). Has a multi-tiered career: sings, acts, writes books and poetry, does spoken word performances, runs his own record label and book publishing company, and now also TV film critic, and radio DJ. Appears in one of the most unrealistic fight scenes in movies in Michael Mann's Heat. In the scene, the slight, 50ish, 5' 7" 'Al Pacino' beats the living daylights out of Rollins, who is about three inches taller and has at least 60 pounds of muscle over Pacino. Narrated the TLC special "The Human Journey" in 2000, which focused on modern man's descent from an East African population of less than 1,000 people and eventual global expansion within the last 50,000 years. Despises the music of Nine Inch Nails and Moby (and most electronics-based musical artists in general). Won a Grammy in 1994 for Best Spoken Word Album for "Get in the Van: On the Road with Black Flag", the same year he was nominated for Best Heavy Metal Performance for "Liar" Adopted the stage surname of Rollins after Sonny Rollins, the jazz saxophonist. Collaborated with William Shatner on a song on Shatner's album "Has Been". The song was entitled "I Can't Get Behind That".