- Born
- Birth nameHenry Lawrence Garfield
- Height5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
- In describing Henry Rollins, the tendency is to try to squeeze as many labels as possible into a single sentence but if Henry Rollins could be reduced to a single word, that word would undoubtedly be "workaholic." When he's not traveling, Rollins prefers a to keep a relentless schedule full of work, with gigs as an actor, author, DJ, voice-over artist and TV show host to name a few of the roles that keep his schedule full.
Rollins has toured the world as a spoken word artist, as frontman for both Rollins Band and Black Flag and as a solitary traveler with insatiable curiosity, favoring road-less-traveled locales in places such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, Siberia, North Korea, South Sudan and Iran.
Henry hosts a weekly radio show on L.A.'s renowned NPR affiliate KCRW, in addition to writing weekly columns for the LA Weekly and Rolling Stone Australia. Henry received the prestigious Ray Bradbury Creativity Award in recognition for his lifelong contribution to the arts, his passion for social activism, as well as his intense passion for the importance of maintaining books and libraries.- IMDb Mini Biography By: C. Bua - Henry Garfield started singing in the DC punk band State of Alert before changing his name and becoming a legendary punk figure as frontman for Black Flag and his own Rollins Band. Rollins performs and records spoken word and writes books for his own publishing company. He got his start acting in a short by underground artist Raymond Pettibon, but really started acting after doing several ads and MTV appearances. He was a natural for tough guy roles, and soon found himself playing cops and bodyguards in Hollywood features. Rollins seems convinced that there's nothing he isn't capable of, and so far there's little evidence to refute the claim.- IMDb Mini Biography By: XjwalkX
- ParentsIris GarfieldPaul Garfield
- Has many tattoos covering his body, including an assortment on his arms, the Black Flag logo on the back of his neck, and a large sun on his back accompanied with the words "Search and Destroy". The sun can be found on the cover of the Rollins Band album, "The End of Silence" (1992).
- Insightful, often brutally outspoken
- Usually wears all black
- Usually performs barefoot on stage wearing nothing but shorts
- Strong chin and thick neck
- 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.
- He took the stage name of Rollins shortly after joining Black Flag. The name came from notes exchanged between friend Ian MacKaye and himself when they were teenagers. The notes typically contained fake threats that were signed by a mystery character named "Rollins".
- Sang in early hardcore punk band Black Flag.
- 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 (1987).
- Started working out as an underclassman at the Bullis School at the suggestion of a history teacher and Vietnam veteran. He got his first workout equipment from Sears and was told to not look in the mirror. When he finally did several months later, "it was a huge revelation" as he'd been a scrawny youth that was frequently picked on and didn't stand up for himself. In tenth grade, he defended himself and ultimately hospitalized a senior. Though he still feels other students regarded him as a freak, he wasn't teased as much.
- You can get away with a lot of shit if it looks like it's all you know how to do.
- Whenever I get dumped [by a girlfriend]), I nail the door shut so that no one can come inside, get a towel and clip it around my neck so it's like a Superman cape, take off my shoes so I can slide across the room, and . . . get a fake mic, like a celery stick or a pen, and I play any record that features the vocalist Ronnie James Dio. And you can just pretend you're Dio, because on every album he does, he has minimum one, usually three, *EVIL WOMAN LOOK OUT!*- songs.
- The ones who don't do anything are always the ones who try to pull you down.
- When you start to doubt yourself the real world will eat you alive.
- I don't want to pass through life like a smooth plane ride.
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