Henry Rollins and Fat Mike

Henry Rollins is interviewed in the summer 06 issue of Punk Rock Confidential, a magazine put out by Fat Mike. Now I probably wouldn't have bought the magazine had I known that Fat Mike put it out. I used to like the guy, his music was decent, his label rocked and I loved the Rock Against Bush CDs and thought he helped the punk community become a little more involved in politics. Then I read a quote attributed to him about SxE and read some of the lyrics of his songs closer [" the kids who used to live for beer and speed now want their fries and coke"] and just realized that I couldn't listen to a jerk that cares way too much about being drunk and high, even the stuff he says in his magazine just piss me off. To be honest, I don't think I'm better than him, I just can't see his point of view and when he says shit like that it pisses me off, just as much as militant Straight Edge music pisses me off.

But I was happy to read a great interview of Henry Rollins in the issue, a saving grace of $3.95 i spent on it. Even thought Henry has never labeled himself SxE, he lives the lifestyle and that means a lot to especially when coupled with his outspoken views and of course his great music. What's fantastic was that Henry basically challenged Fat Mike and Sean Hannity to a fight. Henry just let it go in the interview and ripped on everyone from Karl Rove to Paris Hilton (who i actually think is damn hot, I love the skinny girls what can I say); he didn't pull any punches. As always I was impressed by Henry, and think that if he had acually ran punkvoter.com we'd have a real president in office. One of the best quotes in the article speaks to something I think is really important and needs to be said about so many punks and other people in every (sub)culture:

"However, I think the wrong thing to do is to put that kid that shopped at Hot Topic down. Not to say "You Suck!", but to say here's something you might like to check out. Putting him down closes doors, it doesn't lead to a dialogue, you're not going to turn the kid on, you've
failed the mission and if anything you've just got another subscriber to Fox News. Don't shut them down even though it's a harder road to go."

I love his show on IFC and hope that he comes out strong in the upcoming election to do something that will get people motivated to act and vote.