Q &A: Henry Rollins

Breaking on the scene as the frontman of seminal hardcore punk outfit Black Flag in the mid-’80s, Henry Rollins has since become something of a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to information dissemination. Songwriter, talk-show host, writer, spoken word artist — you name it, he’s done it.

Rollins, who’s never been one to shy away from voicing his opinion on current events, visits Louisville on Wednesday on his Recountdown Tour to “celebrate the end of the Bush era.”

What led you to do a spoken-word tour?

I’ve been touring on my own doing talking shows since 1983. It’s just one of the things I do. There was no special circumstance. That being said, I didn’t want to be off the road during the election run up — interesting times.

It’s been a while since you released a studio album — do you have any music plans?

Nothing planned.

So there’s the legendary tale of how you came on stage and sang “Clocked In” and quit your job at Haagen-Dazs to join Black Flag. How do you think you would’ve ended up if not for that fateful night?

I don’t know what to tell you. I am not good at speculation. I have been very lucky and gone a great way since those days. I have no idea as to what I would have done had I stayed in Washington. Perhaps gotten a job at my friend’s record store? Honestly, I don’t know.

Hardcore punk rose in part as a response to Reagan-era conservatism, so compare America in 2008 to 1984, when Reagan won a landslide election. Are things better or worse now?

 I think things are better and worse in 2008. I don’t think one can make a broad-stroke comparison. Reagan started a very dangerous ball rolling that many of us are paying a high price for. On the other hand, there’s better technology, science has made some great leaps. I’d rather be alive now, years beyond the Strategic Defense Initiative and all that Contra madness. I do think though that American politics has sunk to this-name calling sandbox idiocy that has to stop.

Your Louisville show is the day after the election — how will the mood of your show be affected by the outcome?

No matter who wins, I have a lot of work to do, a lot of plans. I also think that it will be an interesting show, it being post-election. I don’t exactly know how it will go, there will be some new things to talk about, that’s for certain.

Since you’re hitting Louisville after everyone has voted, is there anything you want people here to think about before they vote?

Yes. That no matter who they vote for, they did the right thing by getting in that line and letting their voices be heard.