>>On my show (The Henry
Rollins Show)
We are almost done with the music and we will be done with that next week. We
will have The Fall coming in on Wednesday which is a big deal for me because
they are probably my favorite band, of course I�ll be out of town. As for the
guests, we have basically 6 more days of shooting over a 4 week period. We
basically have two more months of programming to do guest wise and writing
wise. Adam Corolla and Patton Oswalt tomorrow to interview.
>>On
getting star struck
Well, I�ve known Adam for a long time so the blush is off that rose. I like the
guy but it�s not like �W�oh, Adam Corolla!� I�ve known him for a hundred years
but I�ve never met Patton Oswalt and I�m a huge fan of his so it�ll be a fun
day. Two comedians, it�ll be fun. So far, band-wise, we just tracked Damien
Marley the other day. Yesterday, Ani DiFranco tapes. My band and I, we taped.
Let�s see, Slayer was supposed to come in today but one of them has a gall
bladder operation they have to do. But we have Daniel Johnston in there right
now. Pretty cool. So we are very lucky that he said yes. He came to town and
was able to do it so we�re kind of in disbelief. We had Dead Boy & The Elephant
Men come in which is pretty damn cool. That�s a great record. So we�ve been
lucky on the guests so far.
>>On
performing overseas
You don�t want to throw names that are so inside. When the audience is like
�Who is Bill O�Reilly?� So, you just kind of widen the scope more and I do so
many shows internationally and I�ve been doing it for so many years that I don�t
even notice that I�m doing it, I just do it. It�s just part of what you do.
You just make it accessible. You don�t want to exclude people, that�s not
good. So you just bring them in. And that�s just good story telling. If they
speak English, which is the only language I�ve got at my disposal at this point,
you don�t talk down to them, nobody�s stupid. You have to understand that
English is probably not their first language and you should address that.
>>On
Traveling
I�ve averaged over 100 shows a year for 25 years. I�m not exactly proud of
that, like I wear it on a badge but I sure do like what I do.
>>On
my future in
Hollywood
I�m not like an actor, I�m a bullshit artist so I just get hired for roles every
once in a while if the casting person isn�t thinking. I just kind of go �Yeah!
I can do that.� So, that�s just my life in movies. I just kind of do whatever
role comes to me. I take the job seriously, I don�t take myself seriously.
When I�m in a movie, I want to get it done and do it right but I�m not going to
tell you that I�m an actor and I�m not going to pull some attitude except �How
well can I do this for you? And However many times you want me to do it, I�m
good to do that.� For me, it�s employment and with that, I don�t just walk in
and go �I�m just doing a job.� We are doing art, I know that but for me, in my
opinion, and I don�t enforce it on anyone. One should be gainfully employed all
the time. One should work vigorously or at least I should and in my mind, I�m
always the waiter looking for work so this is, for me, my waiter job. So, I�m
on tour with my band and between those tours, I�m unemployed. So, it�s like the
out of work actor who takes the waiter job. I�m an out of work musician or
spoken word dude who takes the actor job. Because I want to be out of the house
everyday, earning my keep and earning my place in the world�just doing something
interesting.
>>On
the State of
America right now
I think America is fine, I just think we are being poorly led. I think we are
being poorly managed. It�s a good company, we just have a bad CEO right now.
So, this war has a lot of people confused and terrified and angry. The
President has really helped to polarize people. Where you have Democrats hating
Republicans and Republicans taunting Democrats, I hate this shit. I hate the
liberal psychos going off and I hate the tough guy Fox News dickheads. At the
end of the day, at some point, we are going to have to suture this because a lot
of the real concerns of America are bipartisan. Our gas problem.
Unfortunately, it�s only the Republicans that can effect change right now
because they have all the gears. This is the thing I have been thinking about
the last few days and if it sounds conspiracy theory to you, I apologize but I
think I�m right. Look at Brazil. I just saw a documentary on Brazil and
obviously I�m referencing their use of ethanol. I have been to Brazil, I don�t
know if you have. A wackier, crazier country, you would be hard pressed to
find. Not putting the place down, I�m just saying, they are nuts. You wonder
why anything works in Brazil. It�s like if chaos had a country well, it does,
it makes it�s home in Brazil. How do they become non-reliant to foreign power.
They came up with ethanol. What powers ethanol? Husks of sugar cane. Oh, gee,
isn�t that a paradigm of efficiency. Why doesn�t America have it? Do you think
America probably had that one on the board 25 years ago. Do you think if Brazil
can do it, America can do it 150 million times better when Lincoln was alive? I
think so. Because, I have been to Brazil so my theory is that it was on the
board in the 50s and the powers that be just don�t want it. You know, what are
you going o do with all your shares in ExxonMobil or whatever if they are
meaningless? How are you going to keep sticking your chest out in the middle
east if you have no financial concerns there? How are you going to dominate the
world if you don�t have a faucet to shut on and off? If you are truly
independent of other places, like America says it wants to be or the Bush
administration says it wants to be, then you wouldn�t be able to have your
Machiavellian wet dream of sticking your policy and your agendas in other
countries. Because, if you don�t need to be in Kuwait for any reason then they
are going to tell you to take your Burger Kings and go fuck yourself. So, we
are dependant on oil because there are very mean people who love money more than
Americans. That�s where my beef is. I just wish the people who ran American
loves American just a little bit more and maybe the American public education
system would be the envy of the world. It really should be. Our public
education system should make mother fuckers jealous. They should go �Damn!�
because we can rock that. We have the people, we have the intent, we have the
man power. And, the state of America, you have a continent full of really hard
working, generous kick-ass people who have a bunch of money war-mongering
psychopaths steering the bus and who�s getting screwed? The middle classes.
The jobs go away. The military as their good work gets exploited for fake
conflicts. And, the poor, the non-white, the gay. The people who aren�t Sean
Hannity. The 30% who drank the Kool-Aid are basically lording over the 70% who
have voter regret or who were saying no no no, the whole time.
>>On
what I would do as President
I would probably sit down with (Iranian President) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and go
�Ok, we understand why you hate us, because we financed Saddam taking you out.
Do you understand why we are scared of you? Can you see that? Can you see that
when you talk about Israel like that, you offend, bum and outrage a lot of
people with the capabilities to squash your fucking country like a cockroach?
Do you get that? Do you realize that we can come in tomorrow and take all your
shit and fuck your wife? Do you realize that? Good. Hate to do it, don�t want
to do it. If you want nuclear power, great. Let�s get the IAEA in, the UN and
all of that because there are a whole lot of countries in the world that are
terrified of you guys but I don�t want your children freezing in the winter
because I like your kids because, you know, they are not anything like you.�
So, I would be trying to sit down with these countries that Condoleeza Rice has
drawn lines in the sand with and go �Look. Let�s go back to the intellectual
approach of negotiation and hearing each other out and let�s become part of the
planet again.� I know that sounds a little Hippee-dippee and liberal but when
Ahmadinejad says �bring in the UN. Let�s do it by the book� and Condoleeza Rice
says �We are done talking� and John Bolton starts pulling stuff out of his ass
saying �Well, you know, they have a ballistic missile program.� You just made
that up, dude! They don�t have one that you know of, or if you are asked to
comment on it, you say that you don�t know, so what�s it going to be? You can�t
lie to everyone all the time because there are some smart people out there that
are going to call you out. But, with this Teflon administration, they get
called out all the time. And, this is what makes me mad because in my low
station on the food chain, I�m held accountable for every bounced check, every
appointment I�m late to, believe me. And, these guys just do all kinds of
stuff. We already proved that you lied about Iraq. How the hell do you think
we are going to go in with you into Iran? I know why we are going into Iran.
We want the northern border with Turkmenistan, Caspian gas and oil. That�s my
theory.
>>On
the film Syriana
I liked it, yes and now. Yes, I liked what it tried to do. No, I think it bit
off more than it could chew. I do a lot of reading, basically about what
Syriana is all about. The George Clooney character, apparently, is based on
Robert Baer. I�ve read Baer�s books. I�m eagerly awaiting his new one that
comes out this fall, I�ve pre-ordered it, it�s called Burn the House Down,
I believe. He�s an interesting guy. If you read Ahmed Rashid�s books
Taliban and Jihad and get a sense of the geography and history of
Central Asia and all that. Those books are basically what Syriana is all
about. Turkmenistan, the Caspian oil reserves, us vying with Russia, vying with
China, etc etc. This is all real world shit. Syriana is a good wake up
call and hopefully it inspires people to go buy some books or get together and
talk. But, kind of knowing on a very intermediate level, being conversational
on the topic, I walked out of there with some people I went with and they said
�ok, you�ve gotta walk us through that.� I said, ok. They basically took a
rhino and shoved it into a wine bottle. But, great movie, can�t wait to see it
again on DVD.
>>On
my heroes
Right now, guys like Robert Baer, Karen Kwiatkowski. Look up her website
Warning Shots from Karen Kwiatkowski (See
her article here).
She used to work for the Near East South Asia desk of the Department of
Defense. Harvard graduate, staunch republican conservative. She quit in anger
watching her reports on countries be rewritten and watch them come out of the
President�s mouth as lies. Watched people curse Colin Powell after he left the
room and she said �fuck this.� And her commanding officer said �You have to go
public. You owe your country.� So she went public and is now doing the lecture
circuit. What she says about Iraq is basically �We are in Iraq for 3 reasons;
basing posture in the region, get the oil for food program from the Euro back to
the Dollar and�oil.� I believe her because she voted for Bush and then she saw
through it. So, those people that drank the Kool-Aid who survived and left the
island, those are the ones, to me, who I take my hat off to. And, guys like
Robert Baer, who came out of retirement and he�s kind of like one of your go-to
guys now as far as someone you always see in any 9/11 documentary now. People
like that. People who are speaking up in a pretty heavy climate of fear and
the Republicans or conservatives always tell you that it is the liberal media.
I think everyone that disagrees with them is a liberal or a traitor or a
communist, or at least gay. So, I think there are a lot of people standing up
right now.
I love a lot of the people on Air America. I love Janeane Garofalo. She�s just
one cool shook up can of Coke, she�s just a cool chick. Or Stephanie Miller,
Randi Rhodes. I listen to them every day. If I can�t catch Randi during the
day, I will lose sleep for her just because I like someone going �You know
what? Not on my watch you bastards.� And, so, right now, that to me is a
hero. Someone who is standing up. Someone who is down there in Katrina ravaged
New Orleans.
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