Henry Rollins

Henry Lawrence Garfield (born February 13, 1961), known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, comedian, and presenter.

Rollins was born Henry Lawrence Garfield in Washington, D.C., on February 13, 1961, the only child of Iris and Paul Garfield.

His mother is of Irish descent, and his father was from a Jewish family.

Rollins' paternal great-grandfather, Henach Luban, fled to the U.S. from Rēzekne, Latvia (then part of the Russian Empire) and changed his first name to Henry.

When Rollins was three years old, his parents divorced and he was raised by his mother in the Washington neighborhood of Glover Park.

As a child and teenager, Rollins was sexually assaulted, and he suffered from depression and low self-esteem.

In fourth grade, he was diagnosed with hyperactivity and took Ritalin for several years to focus during school.

Rollins attended The Bullis School, then an all-male preparatory school in Potomac, Maryland.

According to Rollins, the school helped him to develop a sense of discipline and a strong work ethic.

It was at Bullis that he began writing.

After high school, he attended American University in Washington for one semester, but dropped out in December 1979.

He began working minimum-wage jobs, including a job as a courier for kidney samples at the National Institutes of Health.

From 1979 to 1980, Rollins was working as a roadie for D.C. bands, including Teen Idles.

When the band's singer, Nathan Strejcek, failed to appear for practice sessions, Rollins convinced the Teen Idles to let him sing.

Word of Rollins' ability spread around the punk rock scene in Washington D.C.; Bad Brains singer H.R. would sometimes have Rollins on stage to sing with him.

After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1980, Rollins fronted the California hardcore band Black Flag from 1981 to 1986.

In 1980, the Washington punk band the Extorts lost their frontman Lyle Preslar to Minor Threat.

Rollins joined the other members of the band and formed State of Alert (S.O.A.) and became its frontman and vocalist.

He put words to the band's five songs and wrote several more.

In 1980, a friend gave Rollins and MacKaye a copy of Black Flag's Nervous Breakdown EP.

Rollins soon became a fan of the band, exchanging letters with bassist Chuck Dukowski and later inviting the band to stay in his parents' home when Black Flag toured the East Coast in December 1980.

S.O.A. recorded their sole EP, No Policy, and released it in 1981 on MacKaye's Dischord Records.

Around April 1981, drummer Simon Jacobsen was replaced by Ivor Hanson.

At the time, Hanson's father was a top admiral in the U.S. Navy and his family shared living quarters with the U.S. vice president at the Naval Observatory.

The band held their practices there and would have to be let in by Secret Service agents.

S.O.A. disbanded after a total of a dozen concerts and one EP.

Rollins had enjoyed being the band's frontman, and had earned a reputation for fighting in shows.

He later said, "I was like nineteen and a young man all full of steam and loved to get in the dust-ups."

By this time, Rollins had become the assistant manager of the Georgetown Häagen-Dazs ice cream store; his steady employment had helped to finance the S.O.A. EP.

When Black Flag returned to the East Coast in 1981, Rollins attended as many of their concerts as he could.

At an impromptu show in a New York bar, Black Flag's vocalist Dez Cadena allowed Rollins to sing "Clocked In", a song Rollins had asked the band to play in light of the fact that he had to drive back to Washington, D.C. to begin work.

Unbeknownst to Rollins, Cadena wanted to switch to guitar, and the band was looking for a new vocalist.

Following the band's breakup, he established the record label and publishing company 2.13.61 to release his spoken word albums, and formed the Rollins Band, which toured with a number of lineups from 1987 to 2003 and in 2006.

Rollins has hosted numerous radio shows, such as Harmony in My Head on Indie 103, and television shows such as The Henry Rollins Show and 120 Minutes.

He had recurring dramatic roles in the second season of Sons of Anarchy as A.J. Weston, in the final 2 seasons of the animated series The Legend of Korra as Zaheer, and has also had roles in several films.

He has campaigned for various political causes in the United States, including the promotion of gay rights, World Hunger Relief, the West Memphis Three, and an end to all war.

He currently hosts a weekly radio show on KCRW, is a regular columnist for Rolling Stone Australia, and was a regular columnist for LA Weekly.

In 1987, he said that he had not seen his father since the age of 18, and, in 2019, wrote, "What my father thinks of me, or if he is still alive, I have no idea."

Initially into hard rock acts like Van Halen and Ted Nugent, Rollins soon developed an interest in punk with his friend Ian MacKaye.

"'We wanted something that just kicked ass,' he says. 'Then one of us, probably Ian, got the Sex Pistols record. I remember hearing that and thinking 'Well, that's something. This guy is pissed off, those guitars are rude.' What a revelation!"