Henry Rollins, probably most known for his time in Black Flag and later for his own band simply known as Rollins Band, was making a special spoken words appearance at Wacken this year. It is not the first time someone has done that, but it was the first time it felt relevant for me to actually go seek it out.

I have been familiar with and have enjoyed Rollins as a musician and actor for a great many years, and in recent time I have been introduced to his spoken words shows by a friend who has insisted on me seeing one of them, including borrowing me DVD’s of past shows to let me know what it was all about.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been dragging my ass in this matter, never really getting it together to go see the shows, but as it was now happening at the very festival I was visiting there really were no more excuses, so off we went.

“While I don’t take myself seriously, I take this and you seriously.”
- Henry Rollins (entertainer)

Rollins was performing his show on the Headbanger Stage, one of the stages in the newly upgraded Bullhead City tent stage, and it seemed this was the perfect placing here at Wacken for a show such as this. Rollins was actually going to perform his once more, at the same time and place the day after this, and so I was surprised to see what a large amount of people that had come out to check the show out at this time, not in the least because of the lacking understanding of the English language that oh so many Germans display.
Rollins himself entered in a humble fashion, bringing a little bag with his microphone and some water, and quickly delved right into it. The talking would revolve many areas of his professional life, starting out with saying that some of us might have heard about a little orchestra called Black Flag which he was a part of many years ago at the beginning of his career. The amount of cheers, whistling and applause he got for this clearly showed that the German (and foreign) crowd was not unfamiliar with the large mans history, and we got to take part in some anecdotes about the wild things he had seen while in this outfit. Among other things, there was the one about the heckler who got stabbed after a show, or the girl who had lost an eye after grabbing a stage-diver many times her size. With her head.

As if these stories weren’t wild enough, Rollins then moved on to talk about his time working for the National Geographic, where he was sent from one deadly place of the Earth to another; by his own bidding mind you, as he figured he had already tried so many wild things in his life up to that point that he might as well push it even further, otherwise what would be the point in doing it?
Among the stories, was the one where he had been documenting an undeveloped country, and more precisely a group of rat-catchers and their work in the fields. After the work-day way was seemingly over, the TV-crew had begun to pack up, but the rat-catchers asked if they weren’t going to see the rest of the work? What was left? Oh, they were going to build a big bonfire where they would burn the dead rats. Fair enough. A large fire was constructed, and so the crew figured they were done, but they were asked if they didn’t want to take part in the rest of the night (now turned night)? The rest, what could that be? Well, they were going to grill the rats for supper! Of course Rollins had volunteered to join in on this as well, having his first ever rat-onna-stick barbeque! Even in his desperate Black Flag days, he hadn’t gone quite that far in his search for nourishment before.
Nearing the end of the show and his stories, Rollins managed to get a nice ending in about his feelings towards metalheads; that being that the metal community is one of the most intelligent and tolerant societies (if we can call it that for a minute) he has ever encountered, in part because metal people actively seek out their interests and dive into them heart and soul, without losing their critical sense of what’s right and wrong for them.

Because Rollins had begun his show talking about the time he was roadie for Black Flag before joining them as a vocalist, it was fun to see that the first thing he did when done with this show was to pack his own stuff together and put the mic in his pocket. No need for extra stage helpers here, this was a man not afraid of doing the dirty work himself.
Even though there was no music involved here, and almost zero performance apart from the man standing there talking to us, this qualified as one of the most intense experiences at Wacken this year, this is the sort of grip Rollins had on his audience.
And I promise right here and now, that given the chance I will do what’s in my power to take part in more of his shows in the future!