Uncle Joey's Joint with Joey Diaz - #606 - Henry Rollins

Episode Date: August 5, 2018

Henry Rollins has traveled the world as a musician, author, and speaker. You will recognize him from his roles in movies (Heat) and television shows (Sons of Anarchy). He can also be heard as the host of his own show on KCRW in Los Angeles, and as the host of the Henry and Heidi podcast. Joey and Lee are thrilled that he joined us for this episode of The Church of What's Happening Now.  This podcast is brought to you by: FujiSports.com  - Use promo code CHURCH for a 10% discount on all the best jiu jitsu and martial arts gear.   Onnit.com - Use Promo code CHURCH for a 10% discount at checkout.  

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It's the church to what's happening now Monday August 6th Henry Rollins put a mister on that The Christ killer Lisa And your uncle Joey bitches as good as it gets out of Birmingham, England This believe John It's a beautiful day to be alive Monday and we have Somebody in studio that I can't even describe how excited I am and mr. Henry Rollins. What's happening beautiful?

It's good to be here. It's great to have you here. You know, I was telling Heidi the brain supreme behind the scenes yet Winston Churchill once said success is moving from area to area with great enthusiasm huh and You are the fucking living embodiment of that. Thank you You don't get bored at anything my number one question for you before we even How the fuck do you go from Berlin in 83? Getting hit in the head with a fucking bottle and being the nicest guy in the world I mean about it. I get hit in the head in the bottle first of all

I'm doing karate kicks on bits. You're asking them why they did this to you that you had never done anything time before Which was just a beautiful Composure to have as a young man. It's a good shot that guy that guy. It's a great shot And now 12 years later because this is what I go through You're on a set now 11 years later. You're on a set Opposite Buffalo Bill Bill Buck and him or whatever the fuck the guy's name and he he's from Buffalo, New York, I did a little longest yard nice to torment them and Robert De Niro and you're sitting there in a trail and you're looking at De Niro going

12 years ago. I was in Germany getting hit in the head with a fucking bottle and today. I'm drinking pomegranate juice You know, well that I come from the minimum wage working world of the late 1970s I graduated high school in 79 and went right into the longer version of summer jobs Which I always had but this was like 40 hours 50 hours 3 y'all for keeps and I just figured the rest of my life was gonna Be jobs like this because I had no I had no direction. I didn't want to be like a sailor spaceman Banker, I just I'll just work these jobs that are hard on the feet Live on top Roman noodles and live in an apartment with my roommate that smelled of our laundry Because he was he was working too and so I'd worked nice. He'd worked days. We kind of see each other passing by and

Black flag was pals of mine and I did they needed a singer and they said yeah, you're pretty crazy You want to audition and I looked at I was 20 I looked like flags out here Yeah, you're living but they were on tour and you're living in DC. Yeah, and they're on track I knew him from like months before they came through DC and and they said you're you're pretty crazy You want to audition? I'm like, that's my favorite band and I looked at my life like well There's a probably a job like this tomorrow if I quit this one, you know 375 an hour and so I auditioned and They said okay, you're in and suddenly everything was different. I said so what do I do they go you quit your job? You pack a bag you give all your stuff away and here's a tour itinerary meet us as soon as you can and within several days

I was on a Greyhound bus from DC to Detroit. I still have the bus ticket met You know I quit my job giving away all my stuff gave my records to my best friend and said hold on to these in case I ever come back here. I had no idea what was gonna happen next and within two weeks I'm living in a punk rock squat here in Hollywood because we didn't have a place to stay and so I Kind of come from I'll try anything because I'm not supposed to be in a movie or a TV show or on a stage Anything I'm supposed to be with an apron on Putting extra fries with your shake and so I just say yes to stuff and I'm 57 and to this day

It's all still kind of surprising to me like hey, you want to be in this? I'm like, yeah, huh? Just go do it, but I'm not ever telling you I'm an actor. I'm in this I'm a I'm just like I'm showing up and saying yes because it'll probably all end next week You got to always figure and that's kind of my story is like yeah, I'll try that because I have nothing to lose nothing you are like I Don't know the first time No, and that's the way I look at my life

Yeah, I look at you first time. I heard of you was in Boulder With music wise a friend of mine a Snoopy a girl Turn me on the black flag. She also turned me on to the first biggie Smalls out Just to let you know the contrast eclectic and her fucking world And you know, I'm like this is punk rock from the fucking sense. It's like yeah, that's all what do you think it is? And then the second gentleman to introduce me to he was mr. Doug Stano When I was out here in 1997 He was going to watch you somewhere something something you were doing and I don't fucking around and he put you on

You know the thing I think he had an album. I don't know what the fuck it was And you spoke you said something that Whatever you were talking about something about music the connection You want to have I'm not a tough guy, you know, I come across like a tough guy Well, I'm a sweetheart. I'm a pussycat and I fear everything and I came from another country and What made the bridge for me complete television opened up my eyes But the bridge was the fucking music, you know

You you made a statement that your records never picked on you Your albums never made fun of you. Yeah, the Semper fi. Yeah, your record collection Semper fi It never abandons you your friends they come and go sometimes you have to sue them Yeah, there's that but your records they always stand straight attention waiting for you to deploy and they don't care if you Claim over and over and if you take good care of them, they'll take good care of you In fact, you can be kind of abusive to them. They'll still kind of hang in there so you said that and it just destroyed my insides because I Think that's one thing that has been taken away from the American child today

The ability to save six bucks from my left fucking paper route and walk two miles To an album store to buy the latest get the bus skip lunch by the record lunch Yeah, I did that and you cannot wait to get home and put the album on without drugs This is way, but no drug and just read the lyrics and thank you to the Sheraton for providing us You know if you read the old Van Halen albums and always thank the Sheraton's and that's been taken away from us That's an experience that yeah, it's one the downsides of streaming and digital I mean for me there's upsides to any advent in any technology that I deal with them, which is audio for sure So online music and streaming allows you to be curious and not have to buy the record like I want to hear Charlie Parker

So you can go online and listen to some great sides of Charlie Parker like that's my new favorite musician and go get the record We're like not for me, but you didn't spend 30 bucks buying a record. You can't use and so I like that But rarely does your internet curiosity lead to a purchase and so I like it when you hear some young band You like them go buy the record that bands in advance starving right now like buy two copies And when they come to town go to the show and that's how going to the record store was for me growing up You buy the record and you'd see a flyer that bands coming to town Of course you're gonna go and I did a lot of well It's gonna be a three mile through the snow walk home or I can get

The the second Van Halen record which was like that was kind of how I got that records five five bucks in those days It's 1888 when I bought that record but like you know you look at your money like okay and You just walk through the snow and you get home freezing with that record and it was never not worth it and I The fact that you can destroy them pretty easily if you don't take good care of them You wreck them and it gave me responsibility the first thing I ever valued as a kid like I'm not gonna screw this up with my records Everything else skateboards bikes. I would just wreck them because you play with hard But my records especially with punk rock when like it's like seven dollars for this single because it's from England

And that was like a third of a day's pay to get that right to hear two minutes of angry music And I treated that thing like a Ming vase And I've had some of these records about 40 years and they kind of look like the day I got them Because I valued that and I think a lot of that goes away When you can have a streaming account because music just becomes this thing that comes out of your phone and it's not what Robert Plant wanted you to hear when he made that record He didn't want you here an mp3 through your phone through the the headphones that came with your phone That's what I love about you that you have respect

For the artist. Yeah, that has been lost Somewhere along the line like I'm the same way, you know Robert Plant did not want this Album hey, I'm the same way. It's an older idea. It's an older value set basically Who were you know, you and I would hike to the record store and you sit in there and get Burned by the snarky guy behind the counter like what's that record? Well, if you knew anything like dude Just tell me something good I would get like harshed out by these record store guys They've actually liked because I hang out so long and asked so many questions

They saw that I was a true record fanatic and they were begrudgingly were nice to me But a lot of that is gone and the mecca of the record store where you'd walk in and there's always like those three guys with No lives hanging around by the counter commenting on what everybody's buying Like well, you know, he was better in 76. I'm just And as an older guy, I am I don't do that at record stores, but I am one of those guys I really have to like bite my tongue. Yeah, you're not that record the other one. Why are you getting that? That sucked that yeah, everybody knows that he left the band before exactly He was having personal issues, but and the guy's looking like you're like, who gives a fuck if you have personal

I'm telling you now, man. I do this. I go to atomic. Oh, it's a great story right here A little atomic which I really like the guy a lot of records from the great people what and you know, and you go to Again, I love amoeba. Yep on Sunset Go almost every Friday when I can do you really? Yeah, and what do you drop there? Like I don't mean the last time I always they always get you the last time I was there I did three hundred and twenty six dollars Just because you you gotta have those records. You gotta have those right? I did 800 and cash the other day in Melbourne, Australia said 800 Australian

So it's more like 600 American, but I didn't hesitate and I had to have those records That's what when I spend money you can tell by the way I dress. I'm not spending a lot of money I'm close. I drive a Mazda six when I spend money. It's mainly records. Why you're very in anything I've watched about you you carry that fucking work ethic of yours like a fucking torch Yeah, most people you know they talk to you about being a Jehovah Witness Like if I let you you would knock on people's doors and tell them the importance of getting your hands dirty Did you have a paper out? Yeah. Oh, this is Christ first job ever had Paper out my introduction to the pyramid scheme of like you'll throw 80 million papers and somehow you'll get 40 bucks

I how'd that happen? That's how I got my first bike saved up for my Schwinn bike I looked at it in the Sears catalog Maybe it's the Sears bike who's green and I'd look at it every day in that big catalog You get in the mail and finally had the money I took the bus up Wisconsin Avenue to the Sears bought the bike It looked just like in the picture and I rode it home and it got stolen a day later But I bought it by throwing the Washington Star and Dan rather was one of my customers That's right. You're a DC guy. That's right. I put a new I knew his son too is my age Dan, Jr

But um, I used to put a paper on on the great Dan rather's porch. Hey, you carry that My next album CD's gonna be called immigrant mentality, you know, I've been talking to Rogan about it a lot because It's when I finally started having a little success is because I threw my immigrant mentality in there I gotta tell you something. Have you done a DNA test? No, yeah, I did It was there a Mexican or Puerto Rican in your family or a Cuban because you have Spanish Work ethic like, you know, you were telling one story that you'd on the weekends You'd work 40 hours. You were in school and you'd have keys to open up businesses because yeah by the time I was a sophomore in high school. I had the keys to like

Few businesses like they gave me big responsibility because they knew I'm not gonna steal No way and I could do the inventory. I could do the cash I could make the deposit and so I was not great in school, but I had like adult responsibility They're really valued. I didn't care about school. I didn't like it But I'm I'd work like three or four days a week after school and then on the weekends I'd work nine to five at a pet shop run-home shower Jam down the street and be an usher from six to midnight at a movie theater And then on Sundays I'd work a day at a surf shop selling skateboards and repairing stuff

And then Monday morning bright nearly back to school and then on the summer I would like triple up on all those jobs and just work kind of like seven days a week So I liked earning my own money. I liked the autonomy of that. I mean, I didn't spend it much But I liked earning it. It was not about like I have more money than you is about I am making my way in the world And this has got to be preparation Because I just figured when I get out of high school, it's gonna be really hard for me I'm gonna have to be really tough and let's learn about what a Big work week is like cuz I just figured I'm an idiot and I'm not gonna like I'm not gonna go to college and survive

I'm not gonna go into the military. I'm not gonna have a bank job. I'm not gonna be the straight world is gonna be really hard to me It's gonna be tough and so I'm gonna have to get ready for that and luckily both my parents They're extraordinarily hard-working people like they're brutal like my dad is like school He'd work all night. Take a bus back to his place Shower shave new Brooks Brothers suit go back to the office and my mom worked for the government So she was overworked and underappreciated for her entire career And I'd go to visit him on the weekends Monday through Friday with my mom Saturday and Sunday with the dad and All of them all weekend. They're just reading briefs both of them. I mean their weekend was

Getting ready for Monday and I just got a lot from that was like you just work all the time And then you never had to tell me twice to get a job. I never had an allowance. I didn't want it I like my own money Guy has the cool pants from the gap like those painters pants. You like in the 70s. I'll buy a pair I'll be cool like the kids by my own skateboards. I just dug my own money I didn't want an allowance and I did I find you know break leaves whatever it took I just like being kind of in the adult world Around adults like seeing how money gets made seeing how like things get ordered. I worked in an ice cream store

I learned that inventory and how to make the thing move better I made the guy more money because I had the place set up for high-volume sales keep to get the line out quicker And I just enjoyed all of that now you are 57 You said thousands of times you're not interested in getting married or children If you were to have children where you would still the same values and principles of work ethic that you would have Regardless of money or whatever. How would you raise that child carefully because? My parents were very hard driven people and I don't know if a kid was really in their plans. They're kind of oh, no

So what do we do with this one? I mean they weren't awful people. I'm just saying they were like, oh kid, okay So what do you what do people like you like? Oh, we like spaghetti owes in the Smithsonian I mean, they're so busy and so if I was a parent I would not want to raise my kid like that I'd be more like my old friends from DC who grew up and have kids now They're really there for that kid like we're doing the thing on Saturday And then we got this and he has the homework we're gonna go through it and like wow You're really being responsible And so if I had a kid I would have to radically change my life because I would see it as my duty

I'm not gonna go on tour. I'm not gonna do like I do like 14 month long tours come back for now and then But I'm not gonna be talking on a tour bus to my kid after a show. Go like where's dad? Oh dad's in Buffalo Well, no screw that dad should be with the kid and that's just how I see it And so I would and I don't want to change how I live So I wouldn't go on that venture unless I was willing to just Radically change my life to not be a bad dad Because kids they don't no kid is asked to get born. They kind of come out and go like dude Hook me up with a life here. I knocked my wife up at 49. I

Had no idea. They told me if you smoke pot. You got no sperm spells. I smoked pot with three hands She comes in the office and they says you knocked me up. This was not my plan I had a child when I was young. I failed as a father the wife won't talk to me the kid won't talk to me I am that big my child support. I did my legal applications. It just didn't work out because of my career I wasn't ready for it. I had to pick one today. I only work on the road six days a month You know, I leave here at four and take it to karate and she's five She just won lost the second tooth when I was on the phone with you last night Yeah, you kept saying dad. She kept saying tell him tell that guy that I lost my other tooth

I didn't want to tell her it was leap because then she would have said but I feel like it's my obligation But I'm also at five. I instilled that work ethic. Yeah, I think it's very important I would worry if I was a parent that I would clobber the child over the head with my values I think as a parent, maybe you find your way because everyone's a rookie when they first have a kid You're like, what do we do? But I would want to be careful that I wouldn't be too much like here's how you got to be like No, I don't know it's not You know, I would just be afraid of being too like here's how you're gonna live your life 20 years ago

I would have been that dad. Yeah today after seeing what I've seen I I'm very open whether I talk with her. She's five. I speak to her on the way out. I have to go to work I love you. I had a meeting at night so I can drive to school I guess and I have tell a behave for your teachers and keep your eyes open You know and you know what shit my mom said to me keep your eyes open don't let nobody mess with you today, you know there's a scene when your AJ Weston and son's anarchy at the end and You bend over to your son and you go go outside and remember don't say nothing to the police

That was my mom growing up. Oh, yeah, the police were always around my mom was Bob My mom would pull me over in the list and remember don't say dick. You don't know nothing my mom Went to a dance With her sister when she was 16 the sister was 15 and my mom lost her and she felt she was responsible for us in Cuba So when she went outside to look for you the little sister She was getting raped and my mother took a bottle broke it and killed the guy stabbed the guy the guy eventually died They had a ship right of Cuba Bring it to the States

So then she went back a couple years later With a Puerto Rican chicks ID cuz you know, there's no 9-11. There was no TSA. They didn't give a fuck It was a time you just showed up at the thing and said Have the 7 a.m. Flight. Who are you Henry Rollins? Alright, Mr. I could use whatever now you have an ID so when she went back to Cuba She went under an alias and when she came back to the States that alias became and then she opened up a bar and Somebody else had to do the fingerprints for the whole fucking deal. That's great. That's a great story Yeah, so she named her a street name was her real name was Donora Valdez

But his street name was Sophia Cecilio Do you go visit Cuba? No, have you ever been? I left the three and let's just say let's leave it at that You know, I'm here. I'm having a good time So what if you went back to you get chopped up or something? I think they wouldn't let me back in Oh, okay, I think the government was I went once I went a few years. What did you think? I loved it? Havana was a beautiful city. The food was amazing. Everyone plays an instrument. It seems every bar had an amazing piano player I met this old woman behind a piano She's beautiful and she had a big bowl on her piano for money tips and whatever and a stack of her CDs

I said I'll buy one of those and I bought CDs from the local players. They all have like a CDR of their music I'm like, I'll buy all of it. This is like, you know, eight bucks and you help You know, it helps the local music scene and I had one of the a great Great lesson that I get when I tried been to about a hundred countries. I go pretty far and wide I I was thrown in a van with a bunch of people from Chicago to get around I kind of had to be part of a tour group I missed the lobby call to go visit some farm that Fidel like winked at many years ago So we have to go see it. I mean anything Fidel touched you have to go look at it

There's a bit of a propaganda tour when I was there I saw I missed the lobby call back a minute and I asked the guy in the lobby I said, did you see a van? He said, yeah, your van just left, but he looked at the itinerary He said, okay, your van's gonna be at this farm in three hours. We'll get you to that farm. You can wait it out So they put me in the local bus and you pay like and like Whatever it is like 50 cents and they explained they get this idiot down to this farm And he'd lost his tour group and the guy speaks no English hardly anywhere to a low in this little school bus going down some country road we're outside of Havana and

He's trying to communicate with me. He said hello. I said hello. It shook my hand He's like, you know reaching over with his right hand from the steering wheel and he said Baseball I said baseball we shook hands on baseball He goes me Cuba. I said me America. We shook hands on that He's just we're like toasting with handshakes and he said you Like made it like a jet. I and I said, yeah Trace DS deal and he said me no, I want yeah, I know man. I'm so sorry and we just kept You know shaking hands and we got to this intersection

Where you make a right and you go to the farm. I figured I'll get out and I'll walk It's like three miles. He is a public bus route He deviated from the bus route to take me to the farm and he's kept finding all the English. He knew America good. I said Cuba good. We shake hands on that I shook the guy's hand like 10 times because he just wanted to be friendly and say we can get along And so when someone like wants to demonize a country or says something about Cuba I said man, you need to shut up because if you went you'd really like it And I had this great moment with this guy

It's just the two of us on this bus And he dropped me off at the farm and they were very nice to me And I sat there and read the biography on Lincoln for like two hours and waited for the tour group Who wondered how I got there? But it was just one of those great experiences you get when you get out of the house and you get into the world But I had a great time in Cuba at night when I was back in Havana There's that long sidewalk by the shoreline with a retaining wall Okay, and the kids just hang out there because there's nothing to do

Like a boombox and they just they're just dancing. Yeah, just being young and beautiful And uh, you know, I'm some old man walking by and I would just walk amongst them just watching them be young And this is what you do on it at night You just hang out with each other got the music and I would just kind of walk amongst them every night And just kind of take it in and the air was great. And uh, I'd love to get back there, you know, you uh I'm not gonna see yourself a religious person from over the years from me listening to I believe in the stooges You believe in the stooges. I believe in Iggy Pop. So, uh You know, you do so many great things you believe in artists

You know, I always say that I'm not a comedian. I'm in the karma business And when did that hit you that you're I mean you say some beautiful things, you know, you support You know that those three guys are living in a van by their fucking album. You know, you Well, I was that guy in the van. Yeah me too. We're all we're all we're all guys in that van So, I mean, when did it come to you that we're not in the In the entertainment business we're in the karma business early on for me I come from punk rock and so I've been in that world As you know guy making records or whatever since I was 18

And the kind of music I always did the kind of writing I've done It's all a hard on sleeve kind of writing where people come up that book. You wrote man. It got me through 11 grades I can't thank you enough. You're like, okay Or that album and I wanted to kill myself, but I put that record on I got through And so people have laid a lot of really intense information on me like like just stories that'll kill your lawn And from that, you know, I have a very human view of humans As abusive as they can be as as infuriating as they can be on the news I I have these stories, you know that where I'm like, man, that guy just cried in front of me and told me about his friend

Who killed himself and they used to go to my shows and he misses them and I can't help but like people because Eventually you hang out with anyone As the most someone you hate the most you'll get a story out of them. You're like, wow, okay You're all right. You just like really made some bad decisions. I'm not excusing bad behavior But as as angry as I can get with homosapiens or like people at the dmv in line, you know, there's like those moments You're like, I kill them all

I I keep coming back to the people I've met in My journeys through Africa who have nothing and they'll give you half of it Just because they're kind Or you're lost and like the walk you back to the main road just because they don't want you having a bad day And I've had so many experiences like that. It keeps the guardrails on my road where there's angriest. I get them I'm like, no, no, no, there's that guy I met in Haiti. He was real cool And that's where I Made me want to be a better person. So being talked to and told stories and traveling a lot like going to I've been to every continent

And traveling like that kind of rough out You see a lot of tough Existences being endured by humans and that hasn't softened me up. It's made my idea of humanity evolved And so that's that's helped me with everything from my writing what I say on stage informs what I say on stage Informs like columns I write from what I've seen out in the world. So, you know in this country It's a great country, but we don't travel as much as I'd like us to so when you hear some people They'll talk about some country or some landmass and they're like, well, they're all like this I'm like, so when was the last time you went?

well I didn't go like well, so you really don't know what you're talking about because I was there I'm no expert, but um that part of the world invented geometry It was the first country who ever had translators for they could have books in different languages So don't write them off as people who are scratching in the sand that that fast And and so it's kind of this life experience But in an extracurricular way like I when I'm not on stage like, you know, you tour I tour Touring gets me like 19 to 21 countries per tour like europe america canada south africa new zealand australia

Kiev russia wherever But it's all the extracurricular travel I do just to go see a place and that's what got me to kuba. That was what got me to Haiti pakistan North korea Places like that. I so I just go and dig the humanity and not much on nature like the mountains That's nice, but I like cities and watching human mechanics like how are you making your living? Where do you live? Do you live in that? Can I come in? Can I see how you get through your day? Like hiking through the slums in bangladesh and just like for days and just like go. Okay. What do you do for a living?

How do you make this work? and um That kind of thing has really informed me how It informs my politics and just kind of how I see the world and how we go forward as a race as a species What I see with you. That's fascinating is that You know most fucking people go to hawaii or You know idly That's all good too and they go to greece and have the olives not you

You're going somewhere where there's fucking something going on bitch. Yeah, like we're going into you know something where there's something going on That's what I'm really about lighter and hopefully without an internal. Now. What's the fear? Is there any fear level when you go to these places that you might know just an awareness? And studying any place I go to beforehand and study mainly for the culture So if you're a single western male in an islamic country There's a few ways of the road that will really help you if you're alone with a camera A nice camera like you got something you need to protect and so you don't walk up to a woman go Hey, how do I get back to my hotel? Ask a man

They just don't don't walk up and talk to a woman. This is not the way of the walk there So learn where you where you're going to be going learn and always be polite politeness If you're especially I have no backup when I'm in these places politeness goes a long way But being culturally aware Alleviates a lot of uncertainty. So you kind of know how to be polite and not to blow it And get on anyone's nerves, especially if you're like walking the streets of a city alone Where there's like tough guys who want to roll you because I'm not a tough I'm not gonna fight me. I don't want to fight. I just want to get me and my camera in and out of that place

And so it's a bunch of preparation But fear no, I'm not a tough guy, but I I just don't have a fear quotient really, you know, I used to go it up I had friends growing up and I would go to Harlem in four in the morning And I could buy an eight ball or machine gun or a bazooka or a pound of coke And my friends would go, you know, how the fuck do you do that? Are you not scared? And just because I think I saw that other side didn't make me scared. That's why you have no fear of it Yeah, you kind of have to know where you are and you know, don't be naive. You can get cut up anywhere I mean, we're in southern California. It's a pretty rough patch of real estate

I've almost been killed here a couple of times and So you just need to be just kind of always aware bring your new york with you I mean if you get mugged like you didn't see that coming that guy was telegraphing a block away He sized you up And I you know, you've seen like three guys one guy's the muscle one guy's the lookout one guy's the distraction I've seen the three I've had one time in bo paul in india like the three guys are doing the thing and like I said Oh, so you're the distraction. There's the muscle and there's the lookout, right? And they're like, ah, dude But I said good try though. Good try

You know, I used to live in new york I seen that I saw you guys when you walked in and so you you need to just kind of know Just be looking around. Did you ever go to brazil? Like when they just had the Olympics there I saw them doing the pickpocketing and like they were regret like not just not trying to hide it Like really aggressive in brazil you got to watch it. That's a place where Even I don't want to walk around at night because I'm just not looking to get Cut up like good wisdom for traveling brazil never leave your hood like I'll leave with no money like that's how you get stabbed 40 to 60 bucks have something they can take so they go I got over on him

I'm not going to stab him because if you have nothing like he's Like you gave me nothing So always go out with a little bit of money Leave the watch and the id but bring some money so when you do get Robbed you have a little something you're absolutely right. Yeah leave something for the mouse I've always said that as a former thief on the other If you had something i'm taking something you gotta leave something for the mouse You gotta give him something and here I left because and you got a thousand in your sock

You understand me the real guy got a g-note in the sock. Who's gonna take a shoe off? I ain't got that type of time. Yeah, but I go for his pocket. He's got the small 40 And I go off. I'm robbing in volumes. I got four guys at 40 dollars. That's fucking 160 I'm doing something you know I'm saying I'm having a party and that doesn't turn you off for I mean Maybe going back to that place, but that doesn't turn you off for traveling in general. No, that's part of the fucking It's part of it And um and you didn't see it coming and you learned a lesson like I didn't see that guy I got to go study that street better

and so Having that kind of awareness has really helped me Navigate like when you travel alone any almost anywhere in Africa man, you better just be looking around Because it's just you know, everyone's looking at you because you're not from there I mean like you do not look local Naira, Nigeria is the number one place in the world where they just rocked you from A to Z Well, there's a lot of Robby and every level hotel the restaurant A lot of Africa there's just people in need

And they see you when they see your western type. They just immediately think money And I'll I'll get his shoes. He has more and um You see I watch families There and like you know, and they're in the city center or whatever and you just they're just getting everything people coming up and Putting stuff in their hand and trying to charge them for it I saw that a lot when I was in Egypt and you see those Kind of travelers who don't know how to kind of slip through crowds and you just got to be way more low-key They wear nice clothes. They just kind of stick out like peacocks like hey hassle me

And um, there was ways to kind of the street guys will follow you And they try and get you into conversation. You just kind of politely go now. I'm not the guy try him You know, I'm not I'm not him Not I'm not that guy. Now this year you're starting a tour in the states. Yeah, but then you finish the tour Overseas. Yeah, I'll be finishing key up 15. I think on december 15 finishing key of ukraine And what do you do with 1215 you come back you sit over there for a couple weeks Here's what I was thinking of doing. I was thinking of getting out of Kiev I'll probably have to go either to frankfurt

london Or shiphole amsterdam. That's the airport and from there. I was going to go. I think I'll go to reikiovic Iceland so I've never been I've already mapped out the three record stores So I figure I should I should do that on the way back I've never been and it's a hop. You just I can be out of any one of those airports I can be there in three to five hours. So I'm not great is that To buy some bloody Sabbath in the states and then go to Germany and see the uk release I have all of them. No, I'm I'm that guy unfortunately

Really? Oh, yeah, I have to have every pressing if it's a record. I like I have the test pressing Every different pressing because there's something different on the label Mastered by a different engineer. I'm sadly that guy a train spotter But for records, you know, you're uh, you're this anti-hollywood guy I heard that you live very Modestly very plainly, but you sank a ton into your music system. Yeah, I have a few systems. Yeah, it's so Important to you what?

Unfuck it. Like I love music. Listen, this is my life. Yeah, I would have done this I just didn't have the patience until I knew because of the drugs. I would have pawned the guitar Right, I would have pawned the guitar and the Marshall. I know that already going in I ended up with this because at 32, this was it This was it and the microphone is screwed into the table. Yeah, this is it. But this Was my original dream. It's so weird how I I don't understand how people this is my therapist. I don't need to go to a fucking therapist

I could sit down Put on that album by Richard Pryer It was something I said and it could take me back to that time period Yep, and I could know exactly what I was thinking. I could feel the sorrow from that time period I could feel the happiness from that time period and I get to deal with it that way You know, whenever I put like when I bought master reality Perfect record. I bought master reality and I went and I did thc crystal which is basically guerrilla tranquilizers And I hit an acid and I put

Master reality on and for some reason the exorcist was on So I put the exorcist I put master reality on the cans And I had the exorcist on and after like the third song I took master reality off I never listened to it again. You do know that like I was like, this is you ever heard again ever Oh, no, no, no like four years later. I got the balls. It's like when I first bought house of the holy No quarter I skipped over it right to the fucking uh, we got four already, but you can't wear steady whatever I wasn't ready for for uh, for no quarter at 12 At 18 once I did I had the acid

I was ready for no quarter, but it was so weird how master reality I was not ready for but the purpose of the story. I'm telling you is this is my psychiatry like it is you know That's when I met my happiest is uh, When I put on a record and I play records when I'm off the road I try and listen to analog source literally every single day minimum five records I also try and buy one to three records a day one way or the other So there's always something coming in And I'm always listening to where the fuck do you go? You just go to on me, but

I For for catalog stuff like say some band I like they make a new record. I just wait for it to come out ago But I buy a lot of rare records So I'm on bidding on ebay against some other loser male And so I have a lot of those kind of records coming in old punk rock from Scandinavia. I'm buying those records That's all mail order discogs ebay Um, but I try and listen to I listen to records last night. I'll be listening to records tonight Um

I'm going to two shows over the weekend So I'll be watching live music But I try and listen to music every day and it's I immediately become happier when I have the music Okay, so I like yesterday I put on that new hot band vettel grand Greta van whatever I put on two of their songs. Okay, like the new Led Zeppelin great Last night when I I didn't go out last night. I stayed home and then When I listened to earlier, I listened to something the b-52s first out great record I have it on vinyl, but I was at home. So it was on youtube and

Like I I went right back to 1980. I went right back to The fucking place I went to see him new year's eve when I ate a bunch of kway luge With my buddies and I remember the original guitar player Yeah You know on that of the like his licks on my private hide-all And I get to the point where I can't lie to you or the people at home like this times I go when I'm listening to an album. Let's say black sabbath never say die. Okay I go through the emotions like never say die makes me happy

Johnny blade makes me happy. Great song. Uh You're coming home again tomorrow. What's that one? I'm sorry. It won't be for long With all the pain I've watched you live with him I don't know I forget once I get to that one sure Junior's eyes. Yeah, once I get to junior's eyes. I start tearing I start crying. Yeah, there's songs I on records. I have to skip them because I can't hear them There you go. There's a song on volume four changes tremendous. I can't hear it

She's uh, I broke up with a woman. I'm still friends with but when we were slowly breaking up And I put that song I'm like, I'm never gonna be able to hear this again And it's been I don't know like 30 years and I put it I can't I just can't when I would give lee the acid and the drugs I would put on changes and I would tell him you're gonna go through some changes Let's listen Tony better real quick before I on the second half This came out February 19 1963 the day I was born And my father used to always give it to my mother

When my mother my father died my mom played it every monday for him So I played on mondays to pick up the pieces. I saw him play once tremendous. I open for him once incredible I open for him once I had a bag of dicks, but I open for him So he had a somebody he's had the same bass player forever I've never seen any performer have an audience in the full possession Faster he had him like he had everyone in there me everyone in this it was a tennis a jazz festival in switzerland somewhere germany and in

Less than a minute. We're all in the palm of his hand. I'm like, what is this? He just has you and he's charismatic. He sings great, but the the charisma. I was like, what just happened to me I'm in this guy's lap. He was incredible. I don't think I've ever Experienced anything like that and the whole all of us that's kind of leaned into him is amazing Now I'm the type of person that's very hard for me to get a prop out of me, but I give props when they do And in my world Where I've been and what I've seen you are the real deal. I think and I tell you this because

It's like most people do things a certain way you did it backwards and When I say backwards, I mean that You know, I he's getting into comedy now. So I love him like a little brother. We've been working together for seven years I'll take a bullet for this guy. He doesn't he knows I breathe I break his balls But he knows I breathe for him I he goes to the hospital

He needs a lung if they take that lung with thc in it and whatever and his body it's his So I try to keep him under my wing. I pan from in a way. I don't want him to go through the pain I went through as a comic which is wrong He has to I told me the other day you got to go to oklahoma I want to see how jews do in oklahoma. You know what I'm saying before jew could play new york You gotta do fucking oklahoma if you can't do oklahoma then you got to keep going back to oklahoma till you figure out How would you could play oklahoma? Was that about lennie bruce's face on lima ohio? Yeah, yeah

I Told you being a jew in new york and l.a. Is all right. Once you go deep they don't come up to you and touch it Man, we ain't never touched the jewish person before and you know like so Here you are this kid hogging dies whatever the fuck You know, you're not doing drugs. You're working black flag audition You're in front of these fucking punk rock people that the kids today have no idea like they got to see Soundguard and pearl jam with the pit and jumping in and that's funk that But what you guys endured in the 70s and early 80s was brutality

Much different brutality and I and I'd be a kid and I couldn't wait for martin the fag To I would be by the basketball courts and martin the fag would catch the new york bus About eight seven seven thirty which meant he had a walk past 38th street park about six I wouldn't even go home to eat just to ask martin the fag. Well, you're gonna go see tonight and he'd tell me Black flag he wouldn't say black flag. I'm just saying he would say, you know hitlers dick You know, they all had weird names, you know here I'm starting it because I was such a catholic that I wouldn't listen to White music led zeppelin and they were devil music. So I would listen to black music at the time

I would listen to a lot of earth one and fire and uh Just I had the temptations and shit like that. It's all good But something about punk rock fucking me up a little bit like there was no video. There was no MTV But just the fact that people were yelling and and so I would go to him Who are you going to see tonight? And he would tell me I got to stop and get poppers at east west That was the big record store in union city. If you ever go to union city, they had all the Anybody who played the garden. That's where you would buy the Uh

The illegal shit The people who taped the concerts. Oh, is what concert cassettes the bootlegs the bootlegs You would buy them at east west. So, you know, like bonzo's birthday party. That's a great one. That's famous That's a famous one. You know the drama over and over again the drummer from led zeppelin and uh, you know I would ask him all these fucking questions And yeah, he was gay and it was tough being a gay man in 1975 and six You know, it's some weeks he'd have a black eye Some weeks he'd have a missing tooth

It was always something with him, you know, so here you are young man Going in front of little audiences and then you go in front of these fucking I mean they're gorillas these people at these punk rock concerts and you even said it that you learned a lot When you went up in front of there was a big difference To 350 people Then 3500 people. I think you got your balls lit on fire They would pull your hair you learned how to control an audience. Yeah

There's no barricade in a lot of shows and so people just can come right up and just Hit you. I mean or Uh on my legs, there's I have scars of cigarette and cigars that they would just put them into my legs Uh Some they would take their keys and try and uh stab you in delicate parts of your body Um, if you shaved my eyebrows, you'd see lots of scars and I see one here. Is that the one from berlin? That's this is from brazil. I need myself in the head and santos and broke my head open but

Um, the one here, that's a boot The one here, that's another boot. I got kicked in the mouth. I mean ash trays cans fist with rings Someone just walk up and just like punch you in the face and like and their friends will go. Yeah You know like that's I'm bleeding And I didn't have the money to get stitched up So I'd give like the clinic or whatever a fake name just sit in there And get stitched up and finally I just stopped without bothering So I got these crazy scars on my head from like things being thrown or people coming up and hitting you and that was

The first five years I did music with black flag the audiences could be pretty hostile and that was in america, canada, europe They're just you know, you'd get you know, some drunk guy or you know when you're young You know, we're old now But when you're young it's that Ram at the base of the mountain in spring Where the 20 year old has to fight the other one like I'm gonna kick your ass after the show Like really am I back in school waiting for 3 p.m And like these if I had a dollar for every time a skinhead girl would come up to the van in the afternoon

We're in some parking lot at some bar. We're playing My boyfriend's gonna beat you up after the show. I'm like, okay, thanks And like that guy would materialize at least half of the time You're like, oh, yeah, I heard about you and you'd have to get into it And then load the gear out My introduction to you was really on ari's podcast That was really the first time I really sat down and and listened to you and I looked you up And I I've been in podcast for six years and I hate

There's a very hacky thing where people talk about hate online now But when I looked you up They were talking about you having to fight during the show fighting the audience And I I get blown like even hecklers are like that's the top for me like a heckler I can't imagine during the middle of a show punching like having to have a fist fight with an audience member It was it got so utilitarian like okay get through the course got the course There's a lead bam hit him and get back for the bridge Because you know you're gonna have to pop this guy because he keeps swinging at your head like okay

I gotta get through the verse. Otherwise the guitar player will be you know get a demerit or whatever So you just became like it's Tuesday evening crack back to the song Where you just it just became part of your like I don't I don't I don't have a stomach for that kind of thing I'm really not looking to get that in that situation. So I'm not good at it But by 85 you're like, ah another night another boob is up Some guy And it was all neutralizing and not starting anything is always like neutralizing the thing or the guy waiting for you after the show Like I have to neutralize this guy because I still have to load the gear out

I still have to drive to Nebraska and sleep in a denny's parking lot next to another Smelly mail and we're all just drying off from the show It was that life you live when you're 20 something and you know you're kind of bomb proof and you can do it You know you still speak to anybody from black flag. No, uh only through attorneys. It's uh, you know, it's it's the modern age We only get together to to to litigate Now in 96 when you were opening for Ozzy Yeah, that was great. He became because I can't I gotta tell you know, my mom died at 16 I was lost and uh between sabotage the sound behind me megalomania. I had I was in love with this girl

And every time her and I would have a fight I'd take a hit acid And go home and listen to megalomania. That was my breakup song, you know I'm saying I don't know what he what was he saying that you know what's all I'm talking about Uh, fuck me, you know that whole fucking thing And now instead I won't be laid by you now Fuck me like that whole thing. That was my process every time I broke up with the fucking girl and You just toured with this lunatic and to him. He was your world. I mean, what was that like the first time I met Oz

How did you even me there? Um, he we got the offer to do some shows of the Ozzy and this is not him. We're on this band Rollins band yeah, and I said yes on behalf of my bandmates and they were kind of lukewarm into it We're in the middle of trying to write an album. So I said, okay, learn relearn the set We're going down the floor to play with Ozzy. They're like really and I'm like, yeah Throwing my weight around and the smile we're playing with Ozzy. I want to meet that guy since I was like what 12 So we go to this like 20,000, you know, like his home are these mega places and where you take the golf cart Like four floors down underneath the field where the utilitarian dressing rooms are like those

showers for 80 people And we're sitting under these uh fluorescent lights on the benches and there's an apple a can of coke And like a banana. That's like the backstage. We're like, wow the big time and the door explodes open And in comes Ozzy with a cigar in one hand. He's like, which one of you guys is under Rollins band? I said, I am. Hey man, my name is Ozzy man. Thank you for being on the tour. I hope you have a really good time man Uh, the pa is really being as late as loud as you want. Blow it up if you want. Have a great time You left And he with the whole total time seven seconds. It was just fantastic

And I'm like, wow, I just met Ozzy Osbourne. It was like this hurricane and all you could smell was this tobacco the cigar And so I said to the guys in the band, I said fellas, no one in this crowd wants to see us They only want one band. It was like typo negative us and then Ozzy And so we played no one threw anything at us. I was like, okay And I went up, you know showered ran back up to the top to watch Ozzy because I'm a fan And he's standing on stage right where if he goes to his left He'll be walking onto the stage and the band's out there

And he's kind of standing there and I walk up. Hey, Ozzy. How you doing? He says, is there anyone out there? I said, it's like 25,000 people. I mean, yeah, it's packed I said, what do you mean? Is there anyone out there? He's like, I always get nervous. No one's gonna show up. I said When is What have you ever had that problem? He said, I can't remember. I just get you know, I get depressed all day worrying if anyone's gonna show up I went wow I said, no, I think there's a few in there And he just went back to kind of like just standing there with his hands in front of him

I'm like, okay. Well, I'll just stand here with you. He went back to like this weird statue like state And then Sharon Osborn comes up Ozzy and he like just she's just your dentures fly out of your mouth. She just yelled at him She like get out there and he was just kind of spacing out and waiting for her to give him the shove And he kind of walks out there the uh flick The switches flicked and he becomes like, let's go crazy and the place went Completely bananas and they went into whatever the first song was and I watched him a couple of nights It was like so much fun

Just watching him with that audience because the affection they love that guy, but he loves them too And it was really fun. Um, and I you know after that first night I I flew on the family jet to the private island the hotel they were staying at because I was going to stay with them And it was just like living the Osborn lifestyle for like a few hours was trippy I mean it has the osi logo on the side of the jet the pilot's waiting Good evening. Ozzy. How was your show? And uh, we drank diet pepsis as we flew to some designer island and he told me how they made the paranoid album And just he told me this great story about recording paranoid. How long were you on the tour?

Like a half a week. That's it. Yeah, it was all we were offered You know, they probably just didn't have a band for that slot for like these shows and they threw it out to my manager And like we were lucky Typo negative was the other band on the bill. Wow, great great band And really great and I don't know if they had more shows like the next time I saw Pete Steele Like a year later. We just Didn't I didn't ask him if he did more shows. I think he kind of knew them before I met them I think he probably done maybe osvestre or something. I think he knew them before

But I've known the Osborns ever since like I see them every few years for something And like, you know Sharon Ozzie the kids are always like super nice to me like they always remember my name and They couldn't be nicer. It was like it's I I'm a fan mainly I buy records I go to shows and it's great when people that you really admire for whatever they do that they're actually cool And um Ozzy and all the Sabbath guys actually they're all super friendly self-effacing They're extraordinary. Actually, they're hilarious people always making jokes. It's crazy. How you went from

Most people had done it the other way they would have gone spoken word You went from this violent fucking punk rock world Into this cool guy on stage Telling your thoughts Yeah with nobody punching you in the face now Nobody lighting your balls on fire. It's a little friendlier now and now, you know, because I don't know if we got Aerosmith and 80

78 they started having problems Joe Perry left. Yep was replaced Brad Whitmore left Yeah, they did the night in the ruts record Which a lot of people don't like and I kind of like but then they did the nights of the ruts tour And it was the ruts I saw them open for Ted Nugent like in 76 and they weren't really that good And then years later Nugent would open for them. Can you believe that shit? Well, who's bigger than Aerosmith? No, and I went to see Aerosmith at a place called the soap factory In richfield, New Jersey down from the chans dragon and my favorite best chinese restaurant in the fucking country

They just made the top 30 restaurants in new jersey dot com the best general towels cat You've ever had in your fucking life. You understand me. They've been there the best agros But I went to see Aerosmith there at the soap factory, which is like your local Which was very sad It was on the way out and everybody was really bad. Well, Steve was uh, yeah, Stephen was beautiful that he was But uh, he had some challenges I saw them the first time I saw them was when walk this way was the single so that would be uh

Toys in the attic tour first arena show ever saw they opened with rats in the cellar It's a good show. We're in the cheap seats So we got like kind of broken sound to kind of rockets through the hockey arena when it finally gets to you You don't know what song it is So it was uh, this is the smell of cheap arena weed and aero is smith like two seconds later The slapback, but it was cool. I told I met I met uh, Stephen Perry years later and told him the story and he appreciated it The same same place I saw Nugent and van Halen and led zeppelin is it's it's it was the local hockey arena. It's gone now

There's a I think a bigger one in this place. Yeah, lago the capitol center But so it's where I saw led zeppelin and um, I saw van halen on their first album tour open for nugent I saw them open for sabbath. Oh, yeah, that was a disaster. Yeah I uh, I've seen photos of them as a group shot all ruining the camera I still remember bill ward snorting in between like Like uh, we were sitting so close to the right hand side or the left hand side I remember watching him like in between takes like just Put some on the snag drum

And do a fucking line and be sitting there going holy shit That is tremendous, but they were horrible going home and going Was that the never say die tour? Yeah, that was it. Yeah, so he called to the fucking jazz band He didn't like he doesn't like never say almost every show from that tour got bootlegged And I have cassettes and lp How do they sound really they're playing everything really fast because the whole I think the whole band was coked But they're going through everything like one point something speed like it's just like whoa guys slow down But it's the same set like rock and roll doctor all those songs

But that every show on that on that tour got bootleg And I've got at least 10 or 15 shows from that tour just because they're available bootlegs in the 80s for cheap That's like two lp bootlegs same set every time. So right now today. What do you say you got in the house? How many hours good question? I've never Measured by number It's a It's a lot It's just the walls of them and then there's uh boxes of singles a lot of singles and tons of cassettes

There's lots of music media and six stereo systems. I still remember ep's buying the rat ep Yeah buying missing persons ep right With terry basio on the drums or whatever his name was we had the son on reigning. Yeah, he's a zappa disciple Yes, yes, yes Monster drummer monster trouble one of the guys that stuck out like when I saw them Yeah, steve vias from those You know the date that those days of zappa. He's another incredible musician really good guy. I met him last year great guy How was it shooting heat?

It was so now I want to talk to you two more things and we'll get you out of there. I mean you guys busy I'm not in a hurry. We're on your schedule. Truly. I have a this is a short story, but it's a real good one Um, I'm trying to remember her because you're 85 was 80 94 was a great year for you shot mnemonic Yeah, and you shot and I was on tour with a band with a big we had a big single that year It was a great great year on every possible level of a young man on tour Uh, the four shows after shows during the day everything was fantastic And we're making money so I could pay the band in full We were living well everyone got their own hotel room on a night off

Which was kind of a that took a while for us to get to that So we're touring comfortably, but we're playing hard Um, and so things were really good and somewhere in 94 95. I'm trying to remember the nice casting person She's really really popped very very well known anyway She brings me in to read for a part for heat And it's one of those things where you get there at noon you get there 11 45 for the noon And they're like, okay, they're running late. I'm like really I should just go because I'm not getting this part

She came out and said, okay, you're gonna get this part. I really want you for this Michael man's listens to me. So just hang out calm down. I was like getting all pissed off that I'm waiting So it's like, you know two hours wait because it is what it is. So I walk in I do the lines and he goes, okay, you're fine But you have scenes without Pacino And I have a very tense set because at that point apparently Pacino and De Niro They don't get along for some reason. It's not my business. No one told me anything but tension So they said, um, I don't need any more tension. So you're gonna get this part

If if Al Pacino likes you I said, okay What does that mean? He said you're gonna meet Al Pacino And if he likes you you can have the part if he doesn't like you then you got to go because I I can't have one more Iota of tension on this set. I'm gonna I said, okay, so What how am I what is what's gonna happen? He says you're gonna have lunch with Al Pacino I said, okay. So when do we set that up? He said, we're leaving right now And we left the building

When we go to some restaurant near we're like Century City and all of a sudden there's Al Pacino I said, uh, mr. Pacino, I mean like I didn't know what else to call him. I said, mr. Pacino, how do you do call me out? Call me out. I said, okay Al and we had this great lunch. He's hilarious. He's really friendly and at at the end of the lunch he looked at michael mesut michael I like him And that's how I got the part And every day I had scenes with him. There's one scene where uh, my body double got thrown through the window That was not me. It was my stunt double who actually had to go get stitched up. He cut his head open

After the second take anyway, so there's that part where they cuff me because I'm a bad guy And they uh, wait not get like hauled out of there. You're in the same with the indian also They come to get you west duty. Yeah. Yeah. They come to get you in the apartment So, um, that scene ends with me cuffed and so michael man films So the cuffs are real the guns are real the bad guys are real bad guys. Everything's real And so I'm really cuffed uh behind my back sitting on this couch waiting for props to come and uncuff me over and over like 80 takes And it's a big film. I'm low priority. So it's like minutes to get uncuffed. So I'm just sitting there cuffed

Al Pacino would sit and keep me company. He's a really Nice guy. He could have gone, you know and done something else He would sit with me and just mess with me put his arm around me. Give me a magic marker I'm gonna put a mustache on him And he was just so cool to me every morning. Henry. How are you? I'm like, I'm better now How are you not so good? And he tell you what was the matter? And he was nice to everyone on that set and that was just a A huge moment for me is like some bs artist actor and taking lessons. I just like

What the fuck am I doing here? Totally. Jesus. I always get worried that the Hollywood cops are gonna come and like, all right. Come here. My god. Damn it They figured it out and I've just every day. I'm on that set like what am I doing here? And it was just a great thing You know people love that movie and even in airports to this day. They go, you were that dude in heat, right? I'm like, yeah Thanks. And that's that was just a lucky break. It was a small part anyone could have done it But um, it was just really cool to have those moments and watch michael man work. I mean, he's a Genius director now. Did you have anything with dinner on that? No, sir only a phone call where we both did voiceovers

Right, right. You're talking to a you're talking to a dead man on the line And uh, you watch the movie we're having a conversation But um, if I I was I did uh, Cole bear a couple of years ago and he was on before me And they kind of get him in and out of the building you never see him And I wanted to meet him of course and I wanted to say hey, well, we had that distended conversation Uh in heat now that would have been my opening line, but I never got to meet him You know, it's funny. I I did two movies with him the first time. I didn't really have any contact with him

I saw him and I saw his social Uh problem like he has like uh, he can't be around crowds. It was he seems like he keeps himself to himself You know Michael rapper port has the funniest joke of the year He says that deniro didn't say nothing for 30 years until trump became president now. He's talking truck Trump made deniro talk. It's interesting because it took 30 fucking years for him to say anything But just seeing him on like talk shows like Cole bear or whatever like, whoa Like you'd see him doing tours to promote a movie and he's so uncomfortable. He was so uncomfortable. He just doesn't want to do it No, he just wants to do the work. I think I think he didn't like

I saw him one time and it was so bad that I saw him do oh When he got the actor studio Oh god the guy which asked him the question he'd go, you know what it is Yeah, he's just not that guy. He's just not that guy. Some people just not that guy He just wants to do the work. He's a true artist and it's so funny when no, I think that We all have a little thing. I all think we are you Are you an only child? Are you not? Yes, sir. Okay that that I'm an only child

So you you know when it's time to go into your room, that's most of the time That's most of the time I'm a pretty solitary person and that's what you you know We all have this yin and this yang and we shine in the yin And our yang is where we don't shine and his acting abilities and his little things are great and You know at that time they shot the surprise. I was in jersey on that same fucking street So when they found out they were shooting analyze that they went down there They had to be you know, nine thousand people on the streets

I'm shooting my scenes with anthill and pock. I got nothing to do with the narrow But I just want to get a glance at the guy and at one time he didn't know that these 900 people Were out in front of his trailer And he opened the door and it was like he's seeing them And he fucking just slammed And they're like Bobby Bobby come on and he was like But you know, that's not cool to have a trailer where yeah, yeah, they just they just didn't know the logistics They didn't know it wasn't anybody's fault

They didn't know that the soprano shot in carney, new jersey that didn't know anything Whenever I've been in a film with big talent, man, you can't get near them. No, you can't get near them But this this was just a folk. Yeah. Yeah, because we were shooting two cameras at once So you had a beast's camera, you know when I shot spider-man 2 they were shooting b and a every day getting done Yeah, you just getting it done. It's a 200 million dollar fucking budget. So we're ripping through Well, you can amortize it down to an hourly, right? I learned that on bad boys, too They said, you know, this movie takes this much or an hour to make I was like, I never thought of it that way Producers do are you kidding? Oh, yeah

You know when I have you ever shot new all-ins? No, I've done a lot of shooting new all-ins. It was funny RIP james gandalfini. He did a j. He did a shorn Who played uh, picoli jeff's picoli shampen shampen movie And he went to a strip club the night before and somebody put a roofy in his thing And he didn't wake up and make the scene and he had to pay the day rate the day rate was 450,000 Yeah, he paid it because he was now there. He said I don't before you yell at me I'll just do what I do on the surprise. I just pay the day right. What is it?

I remember because he would disappear from the surprise for three days. Wow Yeah, they just had the autopsy of james gandalfini on True tv whatever that all time. Have you ever watched that show? No, they have the autopsy the last the final hours of people Oh, yeah, no, I've seen that I didn't know and they had the final and I watched it Just to see if they would talk about the drug problem that was existing. Oh, I didn't know yet Yeah, nobody really knew they had I heard it because I'm a druggy I'm a druggy. So I knew people in new york that said, oh, you're fucking Nazi, but just But uh, I don't know what the fuck we're talking about here. I lost my consciousness here new all-ins

New all-ins where what was the daily rate the hourly rate like it's fucking huge. Yeah, it's no joke That's why I never late to things like that because I you know, I'm never late anyway, but uh You see what these producers are up against because they got sony or someone breathing down their neck And then you have a you know a difficult actor. He's not coming out of his trailer. Like, oh, no I've been in films where he's not coming out of his trailer for another hour because he didn't get his 12 hour turnaround and he's He's mad And uh, henry, do you mind doing your scene to a different actor? I said man, just give me a c stand with a smiley face on a post it

I'll just do the scene just keep moving for you and I are very happy I've noticed that in all the things I watch about you Happy when I'm working even on rogan you said something that It was so therapeutic that I did it recently And I'm a better comic for it. I'm a better dad for it. I'm a better everything for it You know, I'm a fucking criminal, you know, I went to prison. I got a gd I got left back on the seventh grade my mom died and I focused on that and on rogan you said that one day you wrote a list

Of all of the albums you wrote The books you wrote the music you wrote the movies you were in the tv shows you were in And I did that recently. Hmm. I was feeling like shit before I shot the netflix special And afterward even worse You know, I wasn't gonna pull a fucking board game. I'm not known for that. I'm a fucking catholic I can't leave here to go to hell if you're already in the hell But I actually did what you said and I look at my accomplishments I stopped looking at the person who I was and I started looking at who a person I became

Because of your list. Oh, wow That's so I just want to let you know that that that list just got me over one of the toughest times of my life At the age of 55 I didn't look at you know, that's why I always tell comedians get a fucking day job Because when you don't have a day job, you don't think about what you have you think about what you don't have Henry Rowland's just got heat. Well, how come I don't fucking have heat? You know why you don't have heat? Because you're not fucking in a day job. You wouldn't be thinking about heat You'd be thinking about fucking working and now

The time that you do have you're more focused on what the fuck you need to do Instead of spreading your day after 11 not nobody cover 11 hours when they're a comic There's gonna be some porn. There's gonna be some you porn jerking off. There's gonna be some music But if you have something for five hours That takes your mind off of the things that you don't have You've always been you know exactly who you are There's no faking you you didn't show up with nine agents I mean from a to z. You're just a gentleman man. I try I have a good days

Oh, no, we all do we all do but You like I said you have You're the reason why I do a lot of this shit the way after I saw you on rogan You simplify a lot of shit for me for somebody who didn't like school You're a fucking genius Where it's necessary like who gives a fuck about geometry You are what intelligence really is You are a circle. I'm not blowing smoke up your ass, you know

So I'm really happy that you took the time. I know that I don't want to say the word promoting It's a shitty word They're gonna watch it because you're the artist that you are on said, uh, august 10th. You have something coming on on showtime What do what's the what's the name of the game? It's called keep talking keep talking cocksucker Say one more fucking word now stab you in the eyeball. Is it? Yeah, that's it. That's it. Yeah, change the title Uh, and this is spoken word. Well, it's just what I do up there a lot of it's funny But I'm not like very funny. I don't write funny material I just kind of comment on that which is funny. So I just report from the field

And sometimes it's funny, but sometimes it's not it's very funny because it's subtly funny You have a line about work that you didn't want your life to be a bruce springsteen lyric Yeah, I almost died and I was a little called you at home and said no Because I grew up on bon Jovi, you know, let's break. What's that song? We'll bust them out. We'll break their hearts forever Forever never say goodbye. That's new jersey lyrics You know, we'll break that we'll bust out. We'll leave and we'll break their hearts You know, we'll get out of this fucking dump, you know, like you use that to describe your work day

Like you didn't want to be a bruce probably laugh my ass off. I don't know what video you said it on Yeah When I was young, I was like, I'm gonna be the guy in the song You know, I'm gonna knock up the local girl and I'm just gonna see the end of my life every day and this In a in a place like this, you know, whatever minimum wage job I'll be scraping away at and eventually, you know, I'll Screw up with the girl and all of a sudden I'll be a dad and I'll be that guy in the song You know, let's get the fuck out of me When I got a priest and I got married I got a job as an estimator

I thought that was the american way My mother came from fucking cuba for me to live this way And I think I would have died of boredom Yeah, I'm not putting the working man down. I know it wouldn't have worked for me You know, there's some people they're just not friendly in the straight world Like you can't give david bowie a day job at copy matt It's just can't he he can Get the understands how the machines run, but he just can't

Cope and I realize early on I'm like I'm nuts. I'm not gonna hack this The real world or the straight world. It's gonna hurt I can do it because I'm tough enough to hack it But it's gonna be really unenjoyable I need somewhere I could be a maniac and that's where music saved me Because like, you know, it got like Iggy pop. You can't give him a straight job He'll just burn the plate I mean

Or he'll forget to show up because he'll he's just not in part of that world It's not putting down anybody I respect anyone with a job Is this it I Realized really on I'm not gonna fit in man. I gotta find something for weirdos And thankfully I found a whole universe of work for if you're weird and that's how I live. I'm I'm strange Do you still feel at times that you don't fit in because I lived that? Yeah, I I don't fear it or hate it I just stopped trying to be bummed out that I didn't

I really wanted to be like everyone else Like have the normal stuff and I realized I do several years ago. I'm like, no, it's just never gonna be me So stop trying and failing and wasting people's time And stop feeling bad about it because they're not bad and you're not bad So just go be weird don't hurt anybody And just go do your thing and so I kind of went I am I'm a stone cold weirdo So I'll just go get that work done And not even try to to hang did you watch steven tyler on joke rogan?

No, if you have a chance. I will he's a great storyteller. He's he told me and it's You look at the winners in life and they all have little things even though they have rough patches in their life I mean You have you've lived a life But I lived but I lived it with drugs and prisons and bullshit You've suffered, you know with what happened you you involved with the west Memphis I've had some ups and downs you understand you understand so many things you see You witness a very horrible thing happen in front of you

You know, I found my mother dead on the floor with a purple fucking left arm You know, you see all these things and you have the disposition and the outlook that you have and It's just a fucking if if everybody Was if more people were like you We'd have such a way better earth Like well, we'd have more traffic jams Probably less efficiency, but uh, the music might be good

Uh, what was your favorite lineup of the roland's band all those years? The 90 the 87 to 92 lineup because you had the great, uh, new jersey Trent new jersey rhythm section of andrew weiss on bass and sim kane on drums And that was just one of the most amazing rhythm sections. I've ever seen in any band anywhere and they were just Loose and tight at the same time. They're like a slinky. There's like elastic and precise and mathematical But they could throw it away when they wanted And no matter what you put on top of them Me and the guitar player always looked good because they were so good

And then after that I had a different lineup, which was the same drummer different bass player melvin gives who's great In a different way. He's just more just different amazing Uh, but that that one lineup it just had this elastic Sabbath P funk smashing thing that I really enjoyed We would just go out there and just like smash audiences flat Now you as eclectic as I am like if I come to your house with Some hindu on a flute and I put them on when you give them a listen to

Oh, I might have more of that guy's records than you do. That's what I'm yeah. Yeah. No. I'm that guy. It's uh I love music. I love I buy it from all of the world and I and I there's a lot of bad music I don't like there's a lot of shit. I don't like that. I have disagreements with people. That's fair. Yeah You can't you can't like at all. This is not enough time It's uh, it's been a pleasure just to thank you to sit with you Let me see if there's anything else I want to bring up You know the war with the spoken burst getting stabbed the fucking story you told of the guy getting stabbed on the show I relate to you. Oh well in the back of the venue the parking lot

You didn't want to make it funny But the guy got stabbed that fucking killed me because I just did a show in nyak Where the guy heckled me got up to go to the bathroom and tool the fans of the podcast followed him and hit him in the head With a bottle and the guy was bleeding on the way out the cops like you want to press charges I don't want to do nothing. I'm just happy to be here. He goes. This is the best night of my life I got to meet joey dears and I got six stitches some shit, you know Yeah, describe to people when you're when you're up there that magic that you feel like I don't feel I'm better than them Oh, no, I'm with them. Yeah for me. It's a service

I consider myself like a blender or a toaster oven. I'm a component I'm like a frozen yogurt machine like want a pint want a quart. I'll go all day I output and so let me make you a radio show. Let me put together a great show and let me Go on stage and go on for too long and really Knock it out of the park. I want I'd pay to go on stage And so I love being up there and so for me I have an obsession with the audience and I always tell I said I I'm so desperate for your affection and your approval You have no idea and they always laugh

But it's true. I I need them more than they want to be at the show I really so I don't have stage fright. I can't wait to go see them I love those people and when they you know, they write me. I got to write him back I I meet him on the street since I was young Henry. I'm like, yeah, man. Hey, thanks. They go. Hey, Henry. Thank you I'm like, no, I need you more than you need me. Are you kidding without you? I got nothing going on I got no one to make all this stuff for And so I've been up since about five o'clock this morning Working on radio shows for my little radio show on kcow. I'm sitting there like oh that song has to go after that one

Okay, I'm they're gonna love this and I'm always in preparation to do something for you the audience And so when I'm finally there with them I I love being up there. I I bring a stopwatch on stage. So I don't go on for too long Because I'm like, oh no, it's like I gotta let you people. What are you like doing? We mean how much time do you think is appropriate for you? It's what I do is not appropriate It's awful No, it's really bad. Oh my god. I tell you I'm looking into a mirror

It's like I'm listening to my I look down at the stopwatch and it's like two hours and seven minutes I'm like, no, I have to start landing this jumbo jet a crap somehow It's gonna take half an hour to finish this story even with some edits. Okay And here's how I'm gonna end the show and I look down it's like two hours 43 minutes. I apologize. I'm so sorry I'm so sorry. They're like, no, no, it's fine. I don't know. It's not fine You have a life. Go go get out of here. Go get back to it. So I think an hour 50 is probably better It's hard for me to get off stage more than after like two hours is minimum And it's just because I don't want to

So and on the last tour we kept just trying to shorten the show and anything that was Less than two hours 40. I look at my roadmap goes. I show them the stop or see 233. I'm getting better. I need to slap And you always change it up your shows like you always This tour you're doing something different. Well, this this tour is really static It's a bunch of slides I'm showing through a high resolution projector and I'm telling the story behind the photo So the the photo the folder of photos does not change I'll I'll revolve a few but the story is the story when I'm on stage just me and a microphone

It's like a set list for a band. I've got the new album, you know, the new material like this story this story this story But we're within a month of being on the roads. I usually do like if a 30 day month I do 29 to 30 shows. I hate days off. My next run is like 46 shows in 46 days. There's a night off, but I'm doing two sets in Portland. So I don't like nights off and you do Mondays and Tuesdays Wednesdays Thursdays Friday Saturday Sundays and you feel that you still get the most Out of the audience on a Tuesday night. It's time is on tours fluid to me. It's all it's always Saturday night If they're there Saturday night in New York, don't screw this See in my mind

I want to be on Saturday because then I get everybody that I could to come out I feel like on Monday people gonna go, you know what? I gotta work on Tuesday and they do and you don't always feel the play Sorry, but you get who you get and if you're smart, you're happy. They showed up and you you rock their world. That's just me That's me too. Yeah, but you know what? You know what? That's that's that's most performers They just want to do a good show most performers I've met no matter what music or comedy whatever They just want to kill themselves to do a great show for the audience They just it's not about the money or the applause. It's about doing something truly good and hoping someone likes it and and so um

What was exactly your question? Same stuff every night. Okay, um within 10 shows Something has happened in the news like some country caught on fire But I was there two years ago so now I can talk about the last time I was in Syria and so I'll talk about that or Something happened in this state. Well, here's what happened to me when I was in that state or I was there when that thing on the news happened and so I can connect a dot So that memory gets pulled into the set because now I'm gonna attach it to this

And so within a month of being on the road I have about six hours of working material just because I've been able to associate I remember that boom it comes in or I have some Interesting sociological opinion slash theory that I think I want to extol to the audience and so Within 10 or 15 shows. I have too much material. So that's when I start rotating things through to keep myself kind of leaning into it So I'm not pulling this ring out of my chest and doing the talking doll thing and that way when the material remains

Kind of familiar but not like I do put in that comma in the same place every night I'm more in the moment To borrow the actor's term because I like I said, I'm doing shows for like a year and months at a time And I have to keep it Fresh to myself because an audience as you know, you can't fool them. They have a canine Sense like they know when you're phoning it in even if it's one line like he doesn't want to be here Screw you too. And I can't do that. I can't do that to an audience Right, you can't do it because you know, you think of what their evening is like. They just got out of cubicle

Babysitter parking dinner. That's a big night out big night. That's a that's a paycheck chunk They're like, okay, this better be good. And um, I think about that. It's not their money. I'm concerned about it's their time It's they're not I don't concern about my money. I'm concerned about their money But mainly their time they don't get this Tuesday night back. So it can't be oh, it's a guy on a Tuesday night He's gonna dial it in. Oh, no, no, no. This is your date night You're going back home to the kids. You're up at 4 a.m. Feed the kid go to the cubicle in the in the bad car I get it. So I never dial it in. It's always like, you know, new york

Saturday night to me Listen, the problem I had the last couple months was I had so much respect for the audience That I wouldn't let myself Be who I am. That's why they came they came for you to be you. That's right. Yeah, and I'm thinking. Yeah, I'm trying to be a stand up I'm not trying to be the wild man who I am. Yeah, just be you and now they got a fucking problem Ever since I did the list that you did and I did a couple thinking like I'm only going to the store You know, I only go to store because metal sharpens metal. I don't want to be fucking around no more I was going all these other comedy clubs and why why I'm 55. I got a five-year-old. I don't have this much fucking time

So now I'm going up there with predetermined material But anything that comes into my fucking heart straight from my balls, that's real I think it's funny whether whatever I'm laying not there Fuck the order of the material Fuck the organization. I'm going to give you an hour of my time. That's going to rock your fucking world and Part of that was your mentality the immigrant mentality

and just This podcast to me Keeps me in check What you said when these people come up to you on the street and stuff like that They say thank you for coming like last week. I was in Salt Lake City They're like, why would you come so long? So and I told everybody I could feel the love Yeah, because you're here. Of course. I'm coming here. I'm coming here. Yeah, but it's so weird how when I went to sort like

I'm so thankful to be doing like when are you going to retire? When they put you in a fucking casket. Yeah, I don't I can't I can't think that's it. I can't think of it I don't know what I would do without them Like if I didn't have a tour to get look forward to or or knowing it's coming up I don't know because I've been touring since 1981 Averaging up to about 100 shows a year for 30 some years. I don't know what else I just don't know what else to do with time and I can I can sit around if I want. I got a nice place You know, I got a record player. I can space out on the couch

But I I would really miss being out there. It's going to be hard to walk away from it So you're still lifting you still look good. Thank you And uh, listen, I can't wait to august 10th This has been one of the highlights of my seven year Thank you podcast career just to sit across from somebody who was uh, no hollywood No, bullshit When you get up in the morning your two feet hit the floor You look up and you thank buddha or somebody that he gave you another day for somebody to fucking rock

You know I'm saying like no wake up. Absolutely. So thank you for aj weston. Thank you for telling that kid don't talk to the fucking cops cocksucker and uh August 10th, I'll be supporting you and everybody on this church that listens to this podcast Thank you. We'll be supporting you for the words you said today, man And you have an open door to come in here and I don't know. Whatever you have an open door here. Whatever you want to come. All right And uh, Heidi who takes care of you is you're very lucky to have 22 years

She's been running this show. Very lucky to have her in your life. She's like my wife I look at it without my wife. I'd be fucking wugats. I'd be a piece of shit So, uh, give her a hug for me And uh, we'll all be watching august 10th brother. Thank you and good luck with the tour. Oh now once it ends the 15th When do you restart? Because on the website on henry ronlins.com. Yeah, the tour only goes to 12 15 Oh, uh, the next big tour I'll do would be 2020 2020. Yeah, so you'll take how much time walk between 12 15 and the next tour Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Um, the next tour will be not a slide. She'll just be me and it'll be the big one

I do it like every presidential election year. I do the big lap Are you I do like europe like three times like festivals on and on and on the big month in australia So I do very well there. So I do multiple nights Uh, that's that goes on and off for 14 months. So we'll go from 2020 into 2021 if all goes according to plan I'm telling you what I'm going to do today out of respect for you For the last five years. I've had a guy been bothering me gentlemen Greg and I felt a lot of people my agents I'm going to get my passport. I'm calling the attorney. I'm giving up. I'm paying the $10,000 fine. I haven't seen Adam for the warrant

but not going to uh I got a $10,000 fine. I got to pay Seattle just wants the 10 g's I'd rather fucking get reaped in the air By 10 little midgets with big dicks before I pay the 10 g's That's a lot of money not going for fucking anger management classes Okay, the guy attacked me at a comedy club and then I got to do so i'm gonna pay the 10 g's I'm getting the passport. I'm gonna start traveling because I noticed the certain beauty you have And it's because of your travel. It helps it really will make you understand America better. I'm done. I love america

You know that came here. I love america. You'll understand it better when you travel. I love south dakota I'm going to north dakota next year. I love beautiful up there every spot of this country But sitting here crushing me for this last hour I saw something in you that you got from traveling from meeting that woman in tehran She's amazing for meeting that cuban man and talking baseball baseball. Hey Hey, money. Want to know money. Want to hey, you know So, uh, I love you brother. Thank you for inspiring me and you got me. I got you back to the end of fucking time Thank you very much and senaiti my love. Oh, well, all right. I want to thank

Henry ronalds for doing a great job and coming in and fucking blessing us I want to thank lee. I don't want to thank you guys, but most importantly don't forget This thursday night kansas city here. I come bitch Full fucking house dean dull ray's coming from the east coast We're fucking parachuting right into fucking Kansas city at the improv thursday eight o'clock. That's the show to be at Friday rogans in town. So I gotta understand. I understand. I ain't mad at you I ain't mad at nobody. My feelings have been hurt before I went to prison for four years

But saturday night I'll see you then at the kansas city improv ready to eat some fucking ribs fart in the whole fucking deal And then at the end of the month huntsville alabama one night only thursday and then I take it straight up To nashville the week before memorial day of labor day weekend The summer's almost over mother fuckers and I'll see you in september and dc at the 930 club Fucking parched casino And then we're at the wilbert theta myself and lee there's like 30 tickets left for the second show So you fuck that a look and we're also at connecticut at the foxwood foxwood's on

But there's still tickets there. So do what you need to do. I love you guys. Have a great fucking monday. Thank you for listening Stay black. Have a great day You Oh I Oh Oh Oh

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