He is the Poet Laureate of the Hardcore world,  the underbelly's intellectual anti-hero.  His scars are scratched on the outside in ink.  But, his power doesn't come from the mass of skin and muscle that he's so famous for.  Rollins has a fist around all of the scary things in the guts of society and the things inside ourselves that we are afraid to see.  Since the Black Flag days we have swallowed it whole and come back for more;  before we knew even what we were taking in.   These days, you can barely see it in the tension around his eyes.  You can hear a whisper of it in the music.  But when you open a book and turn a page...that's when the truth of the man gapes wide.  Fuck Chuck Norris.  Fuck the Bogeyman.  This is Rollins. 

MM: Everything that you do is thought intensive and avulsing. What makes you so brave that you so candidly decompose in front of the world at large and take nothing back?

HR: I figure there’s nothing to lose if you’re telling the truth. It’s as simple as that. It’s too bad that speaking up in America makes so many waves these days.

MM: I know, it's very scary.  What was your very first outlet, before any of the business got involved? Music or writing or...?

HR: I used to write in high school out of frustration. Lifting weights helped, but it was when I started going to Punk Rock shows that was the outlet.

MM: Speaking of shows, how is your tour going?

HR: The tour is going fine. It’s a show a night basically, all I could hope for.

MM: Every band has a different kind of audience.  What kind of audience do you have with the spoken word show?

HR: What kind of audience? Age wise teen to mid 40’s about half male half female. Past that, I really don’t know. I meet a lot of them after shows, they seem like very cool people.

MM: Honestly, that's more of a variety than I would've guessed.  Have you ever felt that you had to dumb it down for your audience?

HR: No. You can’t do that.

MM: It's awesome that you respect your fans that way.  Your dates and locations are selective. You're in Canada at the moment, and then you're off to Ireland and other parts of Europe at the end of the month. I'm all the way out in Arizona and I'm feeling left out. Are you avoiding me?

HR: AZ was the first show of the tour when it started last year. I think you may be avoiding me.

MM: Eek.  Busted.  Ahem.  Even while everything around you is in flux, you are constantly writing. Do you just stream a constant line of consciousness or do you plan out your projects (poetry, memoir, essays) ahead of time?

HR: Some things are planned out but a lot of what I do writing wise is reacting to a moment. I write about where I am and what’s happening around me so it’s a reactive thing.

MM: That means you have a lot to write about.  How do you know when you have something that's ready for print?

HR: When I can’t make it any more of what it should be. It’s usually in the third draft that the thing starts to shape up.

MM: That is a lot of work.  You are experienced in both the recording industry and the publishing world. Are they similar, ie the bullshit and headaches?

HR: Less b.s. in the book world. It’s much slower moving thing and there’s not anywhere the level of attitude there.

MM: Now, I want to shift gears. Let's go general. Do you consider yourself a philosopher?

HR: Anyone who thinks is perhaps, but I don’t think I have come to any noteworthy conclusions in my life that are worth much.

MM: Anyone who thinks.  Well, that might disqualify a lot of people.  Ha ha.  Reading your work makes me think that you have come to many note worthy conclusions.  What, in your opinion, is humanity's fatal flaw? What are your conditions on the human condition?

HR: I think what gets humans down is fear and greed. It doesn’t allow humanity to be what it could be. There are some real miracles to be had. The end of hunger is within our reach, things like that. I do the best I can to be part of something good.

MM: How do you feel people out?  What is the first thing that you look at when you meet people?

HR: What they’re doing with their hands.

MM: Hmm.  Keep your hands out of your pockets, ladies and gentlemen.  What do you look for in an enemy?

HR: That’s a good question. I don’t really look for one. If I encounter aggression, I try and see where it’s coming from, fear, ignorance, etcetera.

MM: You don't look for enemies, but you have become friends with a lot of causes.  You have rallied to several causes, not the least of which is the West Memphis Three. Could you briefly explain for those who don't know who the West Memphis Three are ?

HR: Best thing to do is go to the WM3.org site. (http://www.wm3.org)

MM: This is a huge murder case where the three victims (eight year old boys) were brutally murdered and the three convicted (Damien, Jessie, and Jason) were still teenagers, misunderstood in their community.  What made you rally to this cause?

HR: I think the boys were the victims of a break down in the justice system and I figured that if good people didn’t stand up, all would be lost. If I was in that situation, I would be depending on the kindness of strangers so I decided to be that guy.

MM: You released the CD Rise Above: Twenty four Black Flag songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three with proceeds going to their defense fund. You also did a world tour to benefit. You've also done a lot of work for Skeleton Key Auctions which feature Damien Echols' (one of the West Memphis Three) writings and artwork. Are you still promoting the case and putting effort into their defense?

HR: Yes. I still contribute money and talk about it all the time.

MM: That is so good to hear.  Your help has done so much for them.  You published the memoir Broken Summers about the process of recording Rise Above and the following tour. What was so different about this album and this tour that made you push it further and focus in? Was it the case itself that made everything more difficult or was it other circumstances?

HR: Being a benefit album/tour with an unpopular case made a lot of things uphill. There was some aggression that came our way more than once. It actually inspired me more than anything. Seeing what was at stake, the whole thing was poignant.

MM: I know what you mean.  Being a supporter myself for about ten years now has put me in the path of a lot of aggression and stubbornness.  My comfort is corresponding with them.  Are you in consistent correspondence with them?

HR: I write Damien with fair frequency.

MM: I know he appreciates it.  Recently, with your help, the long awaited DNA testing has been performed and some of the results are back. Do you feel comfortable sharing your opinions on what has been found so far?

HR: I hope that the findings give them a new day in court. It’s about time.

MM: Indeed.   

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