T-shirts of the past--pt 3 Henry Rollins

"Won't sleep, won't shut up"...words to live by.    

I bought it on a Washington High School Orchestra Trip to Kansas City.  We used to do these crazy trips with High School choirs, bands, and orchestras, where we would travel, and play some music, and then get set loose on wherever we ended up.   On this particular occasion, we decided to visit scenic Kansas city.  I'm pretty sure DHP was there, but I definitely remember Michael Busha, and Dylan McCort (Rest In Peace).  We were wandering around some mall, and I found this shirt in a Spencer gifts-type shop.  I was astonished, as I had just discovered Henry Rollins spoken word stuff, thanks to the Minister of Intrigue, I believe.  

If anyone could be said to have been in the right place at the right time, it's Henry Rollins.  He grew up in DC at the first explosion of the DC punk/hardcore scene in the early 80s that spawned Minor Threat, the Bad Brains, and numerous other bands.  When the mighty L.A. hardcore band Black Flag came to DC, he was ultimately asked to join them as a vocalist, a position that he held through their seminal album Damaged, and until they disbanded.  From there, he formed Rollins Band, and toured the world relentlessly.  What made Rollins unique is that he documented all of this in journals, which have been published, and recorded as spoken-word pieces.  It's an amazing record of an amazing life.  Want to know the history of Black-Flag from the inside out?  Pick up a copy of Get in the Van (either in book or CD form).  Want to hear Rollins talk about working through the death of his best friend Joe Cole, himself a fixture of mid-80s punk rock?  Pick up Now Watch Him Die.  Rollins is a pretty amazing storyteller, fleshing out the memories of his wild-ride of a life with humor, pathos, and lessons.  My dad once almost drove off the road, laughing so hard from listening to Rollins' "Tom Waits Story".  "Eric the Pilot", the tale of his trials and tribulations of getting to a show in Oklahoma, is epic, funny, scary, and full of absolute joy.  

I wore this shirt a lot and, as you can see, it's become quite ratty.  But that actually was a blessing because it got used for a different purpose--notice the green paint spots?  Those are from my and Alanna's painting of the living room of our first apartment together.  I wore this shirt to paint in, and it served me well.  Juan and Chris came over to help, and by the end of the day, we had a beautiful new space to make our first home.  Now that I'm in our newest home in Toronto, on the cusp of being married to the woman who, somewhere has a shirt with green paint spots as well, it seems appropriate to finally retire this piece of my past.