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    Do I Come Here Often?: Black Coffee Blues Pt. 2
    Do I Come Here Often?: Black Coffee Blues Pt. 2
    Do I Come Here Often?: Black Coffee Blues Pt. 2
    Ebook176 pages2 hours

    Do I Come Here Often?: Black Coffee Blues Pt. 2

    By Henry Rollins

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    About this ebook

    Do I Come Here Often? includes interviews with Jerry Lee Lewis and Isaac Hayes, articles on Roky Erickson and David Lee Roth and Rollins' 1991 Lollapalooza tour journals and features illustrations by Shannon Wheeler ("Too Much Coffee Man").
    LanguageEnglish
    Publisher2.13.61
    Release dateNov 1, 2010
    ISBN9781880985731
    Do I Come Here Often?: Black Coffee Blues Pt. 2
    Author

    Henry Rollins

    Henry Rollins   In describing Henry Rollins, the tendency is to try to squeeze as many labels as possible into a single sentence. “Rollins is many things,” says The Washington Post, “diatribist, confessor, provocateur, humorist, even motivational speaker…his is an enthusiastic and engaging chatter.” Entertainment Weekly’s list includes “Punk Rock icon. Spoken word poet. Actor. Author. DJ. Is there anything this guy can’t do?” TV Guide has more concisely called him a “Renaissance Man” but if Henry Rollins could be reduced to a single word, that word would undoubtedly be “workaholic.” When he’s not traveling, Rollins prefers a to keep a relentless schedule full of work, with gigs as an actor, author, DJ, voice-over artist and TV show host to name a few of the roles that keep his schedule full. Rollins has toured the world as a spoken word artist, as frontman for both Rollins Band and Black Flag and as a solitary traveler with insatiable curiosity, favoring road-less-traveled locales in places such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, Siberia, North Korea, South Sudan and Iran.   Author ·        Author of more than 30 books, including Black Coffee Blues, Get in the Van, Solipsist, Roomanitarian and Broken Summers ·        The travelogue series, A Grim Detail, A Mad Dash, A Preferred Blur and A Dull Roar documents Henry’s travels through Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. ·        The Before the Chop series (parts I-III) compile Henry’s LA Weekly articles in their original, unedited form. ·        Occupants, features photos and essays from Henry’s international travels.   Spoken Word Performer ·        Henry is well known for his popular spoken word performances, or “talking shows,” that mix political commentary and personal anecdote, humor, outrage and pop culture, all with a healthy dose of skepticism. Dozens of Rollins’ talking show performances were released on DVD and available to view by streaming or download.   Actor ·        Dreamland, motion picture, supporting actor ·        Portlandia, TV series, guest star ·        Sons of Anarchy, TV series, recurring guest star ·        He Never Died, motion picture, lead actor ·        Previous acting credits include more than 20 films, including Lost Highway, Bad Boys II, Heat, The Chase, and voice work for the animated series American Dad, Adventure Time and others.   TV Host ·        10 Things You Don’t Know About, History Channel H2 series ·        Animal Underworld With Henry Rollins, National Geographic series ·        Born To Rage, National Geographic Explorer special ·        The Henry Rollins Show, IFC series ·        Henry’s Film Corner, IFC series DJ ·        Weekly radio show host, KCRW 89.9, Los Angeles, (2009-present) ·        Weekly radio show, “Harmony In My Head,” 103.1 FM, Los Angeles, (2004-2009)   Music ·        Rollins Band nominated for Best Metal Performance for the song “Liar,” 37th Annual GRAMMY Awards   ·        Henry spearheaded the West Memphis Three benefit album Rise Above, featuring two dozen songs by his former band (Black Flag) played by his then-current Rollins Band line up ·        Before leading Rollins Band, Henry made his mark as the frenetic frontman for legendary band Black Flag.    Awards ·        Southern California Journalism Award, 2017 ·        Ray Bradbury Award, 2014   ·        GRAMMY Award, Get In The Van: On the Road with Black Flag, 1994  

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    • 4/5
      One of the more enjoyable Rollins books I've read, this is another of his series of vignettes and stories from the road, as well as a couple of interviews he's done along the way. Yes, his "rage" is still present, with numerous references to killing people who piss him off - at least in his mind - but it's not as oppressive as in some of his other works. Read the story of his high school teacher and his strange motivational speech "You're a skinny little faggot" for an insight into HR's persona. Worth reading for Rollins fans, and won't give you nightmares if you fall asleep reading in bed.

    Book preview

    Do I Come Here Often? - Henry Rollins

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY

    002

    2.13.87 12:10 a.m.. Amtrak en route to Chicago IL: Two girls walk by. Where do you think Henry’s going? I should dress up in a Cyndi Lauper suit. I’m going to Madison, WI for a show. The closest Amtrak can get me is Chicago. No sweat. I just turned 26 on this train. No more of that Quarter Century Man shit for me anymore, I’m on my way to thirty.

    Just spent three days in DC. Finished up all the East Coast shows: New York, Boston, Providence, New Haven, Trenton, New Brunswick, DC. Sure was great to see Ian. It’s hard to think of that boy turning twenty-five. I really can’t see it happening. Not that I think he’s going to die before he gets there or anything, but I thought that maybe he would magically escape aging. There is something about him that transcends age. Eternal is such a heavy, clumsy word. I don’t want to use it. He’s like a season. I know he’ll be around. No plane crash will get that guy. Still, it makes me think. What a trip. Ian MacKaye, twenty-five. No way.

    The thing I got from this visit is that now it’s just like another town. I don’t even remember the names of the streets. Most of the people I know have moved away. I don’t know most of the people that hang out. I think that the less people I know, the better. I’m not going to visit there anymore, only to play. I don’t need any time among friends. When I open my mouth, I waste my time when I do those things. I lie to myself. There’s no use in that. When I’m in the room with them, I feel uneasy, they feel uneasy. It’s a lie, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t have to work. People games tangle me up. Get me caught in games with myself.

    The whole car of this train is alive with noise. All of the people behind me are drunk. I can’t see why they put alcohol on trains. The air is thick with the smell of booze and bad food.

    A drunk guy in front of me is telling us all about how all these people he knows thinks he’s a genius and he says, Hah! To me, it’s nothing!

    The old folks across the aisle talk about boring shit, their kids, the Bill Cosby Show and food, that’s it. The man with the cowboy hat should be executed. He’s walking up and down the aisle, yelling,

    Does anyone want a beer?

    Some guy yells, Yeah, I’ll take one! He’s got a white hat on, he must be a good guy!

    The man behind me croaks, Yeah! Bring ‘em down! Now I hear some people up ahead.

    Did you see that guy with the short hair?

    The citizens are a trip. Thank goodness for Bruce Springsteen to keep all these people in line. Hey! Go to work, be the person you hate, suck your employer’s ass, come home and drink. It’s all right, Bruce Springsteen wrote a song about you. If you didn’t get in line and work all day and hate your own guts then the Boss wouldn’t have anything to write about and he’d go out of business. The citizen and the Boss walk hand-in-hand into the darkness. I don’t mind his music though. In a situation like this, I see where he’s coming from.

    Four more shows on this trip. Then back to LA for four weeks then out to Trenton for band practice and tour. Looking forward to getting back out here. California is a kicked back joke.

    2.13.88 1:07 a.m. Chicago IL: I am twenty-seven years old. Did the show here tonight. Had a real cool time. Went for an hour and a half-it felt like ten minutes.

    Stayed up late last night. Tried to get the train at 7:00 a.m. but it was sold out. Had to fly. The airplane was overbooked so they put me in first class. It was cool. It was strange to look back and see all these sorry looking folks in coach. I couldn’t help it. I kept looking back at them and watched them watching me. Got off the plane, did two interviews on the phone at the airport. Took a cab to this neighborhood where I always go to get books. Found Proud Beggars by Albert Cossery. Went from there to the club, did two interviews. Took ten minutes to get ready, went out and hit it. Did an interview after everybody cleared out. It was strange. All these people wanted to talk to me. I’m signing all these books and then they had to leave and they freaked. They started shoving all this stuff in front of me to sign and started grabbing me. A trip.

    So tired from the last few days that I can’t even think straight enough to write. The interviews are hard to do. I don’t know how much more I can keep this up. I have to get some sleep. Every day has been a brain fry.

    I can feel the beast crawling into my bones. My friend is back. There’s that hard skin I lose when I’m back there. It’s coming back. That’s when I’m on-when the beast is running through my blood. I can feel it and it’s so good. I knew there was something missing and now it’s back. The longer I’m out, the better it gets. It’s so easy to forget. When I’m back there, it destroys parts of me, makes me dull. It takes a while for the hard shine to come back. What I really need is the music. This spoken thing is good but I need the pain that the music inflicts on my body. That’s when I’m at my best. Hard to explain to other people. I have to stay away from women. The longer I go without sex, the better. When I’m with a woman, I get weak. No one is close to me and when I’m in close contact with a woman, I try to get out of myself. I lie to myself and that’s bullshit. For me to do what I need to do, I can be close to no one.

    I have been frustrated the last few weeks because I haven’t had enough stimuli. I keep wanting to be back in Europe in the fourth month of the tour, meaner than shit. I haven’t been tested since December. I need it bad. I don’t think I should ever come off the road. If I do, I should go to a place where I don’t know anyone. Association weakens me, waters me down. I will not let anyone pull me off the trail. I must re-read the iron reminders that I wrote a few months ago. They are the truth. The part about how the work comes before anything and anyone, even me. The mission is the only thing that matters. Sex, relationships come second place, third place, last place. The work is all there is.

    I remember a while ago. I was with this girl, I told her that the work comes before anything. She got offended. Hey fuck that shit. Females play a smaller part in my life than they used to. As soon as they get in the way of the work then it makes me not like them. They don’t know me. No one knows me. The work knows me. The road knows me. The beast knows me. Conflict knows me. Women make all that stuff taste cheap. I was with this girl recently. When I hit the road, I missed her for about a day and now I don’t think of her at all. Time to fall out. Tomorrow is Madison, Wisconsin. Another day. Bring them all on. Let them destroy me, let them try. I welcome the hard things.

    2:40 p.m. Madison WI: Got here a couple of hours ago. Been outside a long time. Now I’m inside Victor’s coffee store listening to two men discuss why drinking coffee makes them feel guilty. I’m so cold that I can hardly hold the pen. I got a pot of coffee-that will allow me to stay here long enough to thaw out. Have to do an interview soon. It’s too cold to go back out there too soon.

    Looking at all the brightly dressed college kids walking down the street makes me glad that I chose not to go that route. Hearing the shit they talk about is beyond belief. I can’t understand how people of that age can be into such mindless bullshit. I was thinking about how today is my birthday. I came to this: Who gives a fuck? It’s just another day. I was in this town a year ago doing a talking show. Tomorrow is Milwaukee then onto Boston for the better part of a week. Will be good to move on to another part of the country. I have been out almost two weeks, I can’t even tell. I have to look at my interview list to find out what day it is. I like doing the shows night after night without nights off. They get better and better when I do a lot of shows straight. Momentum is important. I find that it helps me to be able to free associate and work openly while on stage.

    While on the street, people pass me, about once a block I hear my name being mentioned. That’s Henry Rollins, Where, There, Wow," and so on. At this point I thought I would be used to it. I’m not, but it doesn’t bug me like it used to. I have learned that there is a space in my head where I can go where no one can get to me. Often when I’m on the street, that’s where I am. I have learned to find open fields in the space of the seat on a bus.

    Now the coffee place is full of people and they’re knocking into me with their shopping bags. I put the headphones on and I’m out of there. Every once in a while I look up and I see all these people looking at me like they want to sit down. Hey fuck them. All the guys look like Robin Williams. Those Docksiders kill me. Maybe they should have to stand. Maybe they should freeze to death.

    Walking around here makes me sick. I don’t like college towns. The streets are full of people wearing the same clothes. It’s like being stuck in a wine cooler commercial and not being able to find the exit door.

    2.23.89 2:56 a.m. Arlington VA: Have been unable to write for a long time. Hand has been fucked up. The story is long and boring. Haven’t written in weeks. Just thinking about it fucks me up. Fucks me up to the point where I don’t feel like writing anymore right now.

    3:02 p.m.: Like I said it’s a long fucked up story. I’ll make it short. A few weeks ago we were in Geelong, Australia playing. We’re doing the show-all is well. This guy is standing in front of me, spitting mouthfuls of beer in my face. After a few mouthfuls, I got fed up and punched him. My fist hit his mouth. He fell out. His friends dragged him away. Moments later he came back up to the front. His face was bloody. He pulled his upper lip up and his front teeth were gone. I felt bad about it. Not because I hit the guy but because I knew that the police would be there soon to arrest me. I looked at my hand and there was a hole over the knuckle, deep enough to where I could see my tendon working. I showed it to our drummer and he was not at all interested.

    A few moments later something hits the stage. Our guitar player picks it up. It’s the guy’s teeth-bridgework. Not much to me, another drunkasshole in my face who got destroyed, but I held onto them all the same. I figured they would be a good souvenir.

    The next day the band had a day off and I had a talking show and interviews. My hand had started to swell and the pain was getting harder to take by the hour. The next day we left for the airport. My hand had turned purple and looked like it was going to explode.

    The plane ride was hellish. The pain was enough that I was passing out and coming to all the way there. I was running a fever as well.

    I got to LA about fourteen hours later and had to exchange the Australian money and handle all this business while in excruciating pain.

    I got back to my place and of course, the first thing I do is call up a girl I know and arrange a date for that night. Brainless.

    The next day I checked into a hospital after my friend who used to be a nurse saw my hand and threw me in her car and sped me to the hospital. I figured they would give me some penicillin and that would be it. How wrong can a man be? Wrong as I was.

    I went into the emergency room and the lady took one look at my hand and all of a sudden there was a doctor in my face. He said that I should fill out the forms immediately so that he could start operating as soon as possible. I told him that there wasn’t going to be any operation. He said that I could leave and come back tomorrow when they would amputate my hand, or I could get started today and they would try to save what was left of my finger. This sobered me up and I filled out the form.

    Minutes later I’m on my back in one of those nightgown things, there’s an i.v. thing attached to my hand and I’m heading towards surgery.

    At some point I woke up and the doctor came in to see how I was. He pulled off the bandage and there was this big hole in my hand. He said they were going to leave it open so it could drain. Then he gave me a shot of Demerol and I hallucinated for a while and passed out.

    To make a long story short, I was in the hospital for six and a half days. On my birthday, I came to the conclusion that I had enough. I took the i.v. out of my hand and got dressed. When the doctor came in, I told him to congratulate me because

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