Henry Rollins

Sid Vicious may not agree but in my mind, Henry Rollins is the god of punk.

Fifty year old Rollins has seen and done it all. Back in the eighties he was the vocalist for hardcore punk outfit Black Flag, followed by The Rollins Band in the nineties. Now he tours the world as a spoken word artist with brief appearances in television shows such as Kurt Sutter's Sons of Anarchy.

He also visits as many countries as possible, making him a person of interest for America's Department of Homeland Security. This is entirely intentional. Rollins loves the fact that he pisses off the powers that be, and tries to spend as little time in his own country as possible. "When I'm not travelling I'm looking for destinations to travel to," says the man who can't visit an airport without receiving a full body search.

Rollins was recently in South Africa as part of his Frequent Flyer spoken word tour. This is the second time he's performed in the country and it will probably not be the last. Rollins says "it’s really cool" having an audience in South Africa and that's all that's required to get him to come on tour.

"I include South Africa for the same reason I tour in Germany, Canada, etc. It's a place that I can go where the audiences are great. The highlight for me was the shows themselves."
From his response it's clear that Rollins is happiest when he has a place to speak his mind, and boy, does he love to hear himself speak. His show at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town lasted three hours, without him once stopping to take a sip of water.

Rollins made it clear at his show that he loves South Africa but he has some advice for the fledgling democracy. "I think South Africans should maintain their path and keep emerging from the previous several decades of history."

Rock on.