‘Not in my America’

• By JOHN WIRT
• Advocate music critic
• Published: Jun 25, 2008 - Page: 5E - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Henry Rollins — musician, writer, actor, spoken-word performer, TV and radio host — is in New Orleans this week on a double assignment. He’s shooting footage for an upcoming IFC TV special and doing a spoken-word performance tonight at Tipitina’s.

The 47-year-old Rollins made his initial impact on American culture in the 1980s through the hardcore punk band, Black Flag. He later led the Rollins Band, toured as a spoken-word performer and founded his own publishing company, which issued his own works as well as books by fellow musicians Exene Cervenka and Nick Cave and such literally figures as Henry Miller.

Tonight’s Tipitina’s performance, a benefit for hurricane recovery, is part of Rollins’ “Provoked” tour.

“In the last eight years I’ve seen so much happen on my watch, in my name,” he said Monday from his hotel in New Orleans.

So Rollins, a man absolutely unafraid of exercising his freedom of speech, is once again speaking his mind.

“‘Provoked’ came from people saying, ‘Oh, you’re just being provocative,’ ” Rollins explained of his tour’s title. “And I said, ‘Oh, you think I’m just being provocative? I’m being disingenuous? My information is corrupt?’

“No. I’m informed and, actually, I am provoked. And I got a big mouth and I never quit.”

Of course, the past eight years includes Hurricane Katrina, the levee breaks in New Orleans and their dark aftermath.

“Yeah, and the obvious neglect of this administration,” Rollins said in reference to the Bush White House.

Rollins and his IFC film crew plan to visit still-struggling areas of New Orleans such as the Lower 9th Ward.

“We’re gonna be going through some wiped-out neighborhoods with residents on the walk,” he said. “Basically, giving people a soap box. I figure these people are gonna want an opportunity to tell their American story. And I wanna get all kinds of points of view.”

While he faults governmental response to Katrina, Rollins praises Americans’ response to the disaster.

“The private sector gave over a billion dollars quickly,” he said. “Every band I know did benefits, every radio station I know did benefits. I threw money at it. Americans care about other Americans. California, Texas, all these states, absorbed so many displaced people. We are good, we do help.