Henry Rollins interviewed by V. Vale

HENRY ROLLINS – It is our position that a lot of people do not really “know” Henry Rollins and that their opinion of him is based on ancient information. Everyone (that is, all of our young interns) who has read this book has become a Rollins fan, so join the elect club! Henry Rollins is not who you think he is; he is much, much more. So read this book and attend his Spoken Word performances, which are always evolving, always different, always provocative, and always inspiring. And hunt down his beautiful hardbound color photography book called OCCUPANTS which will really show you The Photographer Side of Henry Rollins … AND the Montaigne-Essay side in the best French NOIR tradition…

EXCERPT:

V. Vale: Well, you know the saying “privilege confers blinders.” I think many Americans like myself don’t realize that in a weird way — relatively — we’re in luxury and we don’t even know it.

Henry Rollins: Well, perspective is key… I was just in Hanoi a few weeks ago interviewing Vietnamese veterans: Vietnamese Vietnam War veterans who had all been affected by Agent Orange. I took photographs and hung out with fourth-generation kids who were affected by this stuff. Some of these kids are just mangled physically because of what their mothers and fathers had in their systems… And this is how a lot of the world is. As Americans, certainly our media is not showing it to us. In America and basically the West–for the most part–we are spared a lot of the awfulness of the world, a lot of the drudgery and harshness.

Reviews:

“The Henry Rollins book is fantastic, by the way.” – Garrett L., Los Angeles

“Vale! I read the Henry Rollins book in one sitting – it was so inspirational, you know what questions to ask – I came away from the book feeling better — feeling charged. HR has a way of making you feel lazy…I am going to review the HR book soon!” – Jim H.