Henry Rollins On Songwriting

In 2001, suddenly, I no longer thought lyrically. It was as if I had never written a song in my life. It was like a switch had been thrown and it was no longer something I did.

In 2003, I did a tour that featured old songs. The single purpose of this tour was to raise money for a group of young men languishing in Arkansas prisons for murders they did not commit, called the West Memphis Three. We went from Arizona to Japan and raised substantial funds for them. In 2006, at the behest of the guitarist from a previous line up, I went out with my bandmates of nearly a decade before for a brief tour. We played old music. Looking back, it was probably not the thing to do.

Since then, I do the occasional song onstage at a benefit but I have not written a lyric for well over ten years or more. The form feels so foreign to me, it’s as if I never wrote a single one.

There is a reason I do not go out on the road in the warmer months to “play the hits” (a dubious phrase in my case), to anyone who would show up. For me, it is resting on past achievements. Most of the tours I went on were wars and the songs were battle hymns. I must respect that. I take my do’s and don’ts from at least two people. Miles Davis, who never looked back and really didn’t care what you thought of what he did. He was only there to serve the music. Ian MacKaye, who was in one successful band after another; Teen Idles, Minor Threat, Embrace, Fugazi and now The Evens. Ian never does old material. Ever. He only goes in one direction.

I should not be afforded the opportunity to submit work to this publication. I am, in fact, not a songwriter, a lyricist or an artist. Never once in my life have I had an artistic twitch or convulsion. I have written and published over twenty-five books. Doesn’t make me a writer. (I own the freakin’ company.)

What I am, is furious. I am a perpetually angry person. This needs to go somewhere. I don’t want to blow my brains out or go to prison. So, I find a form to serve until it no longer requires my attentions and then I move onto something else. This was me and songwriting.