Henry
Rollins is the former lead singer for early punk group Black
Flag. He's also a
poet, journalist, book publisher, music producer, punk culture
archivist,
actor, spoken-word artist, comedian, television show host, radio
show host, record
collector and vocalist fronting his own Rollins band.
Born
2.13.61 (also the name of his publishing house), Rollins grew up in
Washington,
D.C. At age twelve he attended the Bullis School for Boys. During
his early
teens he befriended Ian MacKaye (who would later form Teen Idles,
Minor Threat,
and Fugazi); the two were pioneering skateboard activists. In 1980
he joined State
of Alert (SOA) as lead vocalist, and in 1981 joined Black Flag and
moved to Los
Angeles. Henry
Rollins and his band tour regularly out of their home base in Los
Angeles,
California.
In 1986 his Frankenchrist trial (the first
record in history charged with obscenity) forced him into
international
limelight as a gadfly speaking out on censorship and
First-Amendment violations.
Thus began his career as a spoken-word firebrand. Biafra has a way
of
penetrating political and corporate media smokescreens to spotlight
the real
issues festering beneath. His radical insights inform a dozen music
albums and
six spoken-word albums on the Alternative Tentacles label.
is a British cult hero--a painter, punk
rocker, poet, and publisher (Hangman Books) who since 1977 has
produced over
150 LPs, CDs, cassettes and 7" 4s; 40 books; several zines; and
thousands of
drawings and paintings. His bands include Thee Milkshakes, Thee
Headcoats, Thee
Mighty Caesars and The Buff Medways. His books include My Fault and
Notebooks
of a Naked Youth.
Billy's official website is www.theebillychildish.com.
See also www.stuckism.com
for information on Stuckism, the first Remodernist art group, which
Childish
founded with Charles Thomson, Sexton Ming and other artists. Billy
Childish
lives in Chatham, Kent, England.
In 1953 he and Peter D. Martin co-founded City Lights
Bookstore,
which published Allen Ginsberg's seminal poem, Howl. His own
Pictures
of the Gone World and A Coney Island of the Mind became poetry
best-sellers. Ferlinghetti has spoken out against HUAC, the Vietnam
war, and
numerous other political and social violations.
Until the end of his life, he continued to write, give readings,
paint, and write a
monthly column for the San Francisco Chronicle, "Poetry As
News,"
archived on www.citylights.com.
His numerous books are listed at the back of this interview.
Currently there are five biographies in English of Lawrence
Ferlinghetti: Neeli Cherkovski's Ferlinghetti: A Biography
(1979;
personable, not a critical biography); Barry Silesky's
Ferlinghetti: The
Artist in His Time (1990; a more scholarly account); Larry R.
Smith's Poet-At-Large
(1983; not a full-scale biography); Michael Skau's Constantly
Risking
Absurdity (1989; Whitson Publishing Co.) and Christopher Felver's
Ferlinghetti
Portrait, an art-photography hardback. Numerous books
containing
Ferlinghetti biographical data and interviews exist in other
languages. He has
also been documented on videos such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti:
Rivers of
Light and An Evening with Lawrence Ferlinghetti) as well as on
various audio recordings, including some poetry-and-jazz
sessions.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti has two children, several
grand-children, and lives in San Francisco. [He died February 22,
2021]
"A pocket-sized powerhouse of interviews"--Positively Yeah
Yeah Yeah "As always, the interviews are insightful, fascinating
and
often hilarious"--San Francisco Bay Guardian "A lively collection
of rambles"--San Francisco Chronicle "Like most RE/Search books,
Real Conversations 1
flies by, and the manner in which the subjects were "interviewed"
allows each
of the subjects to discuss issues, as opposed to just answering
questions. Each
person in the book surprised me, and usually pleasantly. Instead of
conversations
with underground "celebrities," this is a series of talks with
intelligent,
informed men who have refused to be sucked in by stardom, and have
managed
instead to stick to their guns for decades, an admirable
feat."--Robert Collins,
Maximum Rock 'n' Roll #218
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