Staying Power

It's not considered punk rock to be lured by the big money. But Henry Rollins says 10 bucks steered him into the spoken-word dates that are now a major part of his career.

When Rollins still was fronting Black Flag in the early '80s, he would tag along with bassist Chuck Dukowsky to poetry jams. "I knew people on the bill and if they were good it was good, and if they were bad it was even better," he says.

"One night the promoter said, 'What about you? Why don't you get up there? ... You got a big mouth.' " Then he sweetened the deal: "We're paying 10 bucks."

Rollins said, "Well, then I'm in," because he was broke. "I went up and read a couple of things I had written and told a story about what happened at band practice a couple of days before, when someone tried to run over our guitar player."

By 1985, he was taking the spoken-word gig coast to coast. Now the 46-year-old performer is at least as well-known for his opinion-related ventures -- including "The Henry Rollins Show" on cable's IFC channel -- as he is for his work with the Rollins Band.

"It's nice for my metabolism because I like to work all the time," says Rollins, who essays the second-to-last date of his "Provoked" tour today at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. "It became a thing that travels very easily and seems to have a staying power."

Right-wing provocateur Ann Coulter became the satiric target of the "Letters from Henry" segment of his talk show last year: "You used to be fun, at least funny. At least gently and amusingly insane. But girlfriend, you've changed. ... Where to now, my sweet fascist?"

They're on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but Rollins and Coulter do share career parallels. Both became favorite go-to personalities with identifiable physiques -- his pumped-up biceps, her legs -- to liven up the late shows or cable news punditry.

Rollins likens Coulter to "a professional wrestler," or "a show horse." "She knows she can say stuff that will inflame people and put her in the news, and that sells books."

The big difference, he says, is that "her motivation would be money, my motivation isn't. And also, you have to eventually wear all that stuff. It is attributed to you. It just depends on how much you care what people think of you and what you want to do in the future."

If Coulter believes everything she says, that's one thing, he adds. "But I bet she doesn't. ... She's kind of like a boy band. It'll be over for her fairly soon and she'll be relegated to speaking to psychotic Christian extremists in tents in Arkansas."

Rollins' current tent meetings hold back on presidential primary politics. "I want the herd culled a bit before I weigh in on who I'm interested in," he says. "I want to see the debates get more intense. I want the rubber to meet the road on both sides of the aisle."

He's reminding audience that the Bush administration is still in office and "there is quite a bit of saber rattling and spoiling for a fight with Iran. I think the neo-conservatives understand they're out of here in about a year and they gotta get this one going, otherwise they'll never be taken seriously again."

Rollins visited Iran in January, with no cameras or official business, just so he could talk about the country with "a little bit more experience than Ann Coulter. I've probably been more times than her and the president."

He visited the homes of several families in Tehran. "I liked them and I liked their kids. I really liked the people I met and hope they don't get killed."

Most people he met had warm feelings about the United States, and many had visited or studied here. "I think if you had a fair election, (the Ayatollah) Khamenei and (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad would be gone."

But on his current tour, he explores "a scenario where Belgium invades America to bring democracy to America.

"Within a week, every Belgian person in America would be dead," he says. "We would not be invaded and occupied by any country, no matter what benevolent intentions they had. We would not tolerate it. C'mon. You cannot expect other countries to take this and call them insurgents and all that. They're the locals and they want you to leave."

Rollins says the novelty of bringing idea-driven shows to the Las Vegas Strip has worn off, and he's gotten used to the city since his first visit with Black Flag in late 1984. "Our audience didn't like the (co-billed) Meat Puppets and they were actually throwing bottles at them. It was kind of a long evening."

His current attitude about Las Vegas goes back to the money thing.

"I never gambled in my life. I like my money and I want to keep it, and I'm probably not smart enough to play cards," he says. His idea of a good night on the town? "Get a good meal, do a good show and split."

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0288.