"All you got is life time... Go!" - Henry Rollins in 5 Youtube clips

I don't really have a lot of heroes. Not in the 'celebrity' kind of way. There's more people I look up to in my family or circle of friends than in a tabloid or a music magazine.
There are a couple of exceptions. Henry Rollins is one of them. I love Black Flag and Rollins Band. I have seen a couple of his spoken word shows and always left the room amazed and totally blown away. Lately I have been reading some of his books and listened to his radio shows and podcasts and they are nothing short of inspiring.

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The body of work he has created, the things he has done, the countries he has visited,... Totally mind blowing and inspiring. As is his work ethic. If there's one thing that I admire and am inspired by it's his work ethic, since his early days singing for State Of Alert in Washington DC and scooping ice cream for a living until now, constantly writing, making radio shows and touring and traveling.
You see, much like most people I'm guilty of procrastination more than I like to admit. Be it professionally or in my personal life. I can be pretty lazy and most of the time I regret it afterwards. If there's one thing Henry Rollins learned me lately it is to step it ut a notch. On every level. Also with this blog. I started with a lot of plans and enthusiasm but started slacking real quick. I'll try to update this thing more.

For starters: here's my 5 favorite youtube clips involving Henry Rollins (not his bands or music but documentaries, quotes,...)


1. A dutch documentary recorded in 1995. He talks about his life and is brutally honest about his childhood, relationships, his solitary life, his work, ... Be sure to check this out. I wasn't going to include music of his bands but there's some footage of the Rollins Band at the pinkpop festival as a nice extra!

2. Some early spoken word clips and interviews from the 1980's. He also talks about why he enjoys doing spoken word shows so much. He says it's way more direct than singing in a band, even in the confrontational Black Flag. Funny spoken word clip: 'Henry Rollins' pro tips on what not to do with girls on the first date.'

3. Henry Rollins on 'what's in my bag' at the Amoeba recordstore in 2011. Henry Rollins goes shopping at Amoeba Records in Hollywood and shares what's in his bag. Strange sidenote: in recent years Henry Rollins has been an avid vinyl fanatic and I have seen pictures of his massive record collection. But in this clip he only buys cd's or cd-r's. Very interesting and nice picks though!

4. Henry Rollins on Ian Svenonius' Soft Focus. This is a pretty long but interesting and funny interview done by Ian Svenonius (of The Make-Up, Nation Of Ulysses, Chain And The Gany,... and probably the most interesting dandy in punk) for his 'Soft Focus' series. A lot of topics are covered here, like why Rollins isn't that worried about his FBI file.

5. There's a couple of Youtube clips of Henry Rollins talking about his favorite vinyl records for a channel called 'The Sound Of Vinyl'. He picks some awesome records and classics (from Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures' to John Coltrane's 'A love supreme' but I especially like this short clip where he explains how and with who to listen to records (although he prefers to do this alone of course). Check it out:

That's it. Of course there's tons more interesting clips of spoken word shows, documentaries, interviews,... on youtube. Go check them out. Some of them are pure gold!

I'm going to the 'Henry Rollins travel slideshow' later this year in Kortrijk where he will be showing pictures and will be telling stories of his many travels. I'm really looking forward to this!

In the meantime, remember this: "No such thing as spare time, no such thing as free time, no such thing as down time. All you got is life time... Go!"