Henry Rollins

More than 25 years ago, Henry Rollins made a name for himself as the frenzied, tattooed front man for the hardcore punk band Black Flag. While many of his contemporaries have long since disappeared from the stage, Rollins is still performing. The free-associating wordsmith still dabbles in music but also gives spoken-word performances and has toured with the United Service Organizations (USO), providing comic relief to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

During his career, Rollins has averaged more than 100 performances a year and shows no signs of slowing down. He has tackled Lollapalooza and Woodstock, appeared on late night television with Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno, and snagged the occasional acting gig alongside such A-list celebrities as Will Smith and Al Pacino. Rollins even won a Grammy, for the audio book Get in the Van , an account of his road-tripping band days. In 2004, Rollins moved from performing onstage to behind the camera as host of his own television show on the Independent Film Channel. At first, the show focused on movies, but by 2006, he had extended the format to also include critiques of music, politics, and pop culture amidst a steady stream of celebrity guests and musicians.

The former punk rocker eschews tobacco and alcohol—he is part of the straight-edge movement that came about in the late 1970s. Speaking to Crazewire's Will Fresch, Rollins said he finds drinkers "just so slow and dull. As for today, I mean, it's not even a temptation for me. It's as much of a temptation as drinking paint. I'm just not interested."

Each year, Rollins keeps a busy schedule of spoken-word performances. A typical show consists of Rollins reporting his thoughts on what he has been seeing and feeling—and like his other work, he does not shy away from expressing the pain and frustration he feels living in today's world. Rollins frequently talks about Iraq and living in a post-9/11 society. His shows include well-polished monologues, as well as spur-of-the-moment rants that frequently target U.S. President George W. Bush. Despite his disagreements with the Bush administration's policies, Rollins has done several tours with the USO, beginning in 2003, because troops kept requesting him. Over the years, Rollins has entertained troops in Korea, Japan, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, the South Pacific, and Afghanistan.

Touring with the USO has generated plenty of material for Rollins. If "you go hang out in Saddam's palace for an afternoon, there's no way that you're not going to have some stories to tell. I'm not on some political agenda. I'm just giving you my take of what I saw, which is definitely not like what the guy on the news is going to say because I'm not shilling for anybody," Rollins told Kane Young of the Hobart Mercury. Hide