Rollins was my least favorite singer from my least favorite period of Black Flag, but I always appreciated his intellect and ideas. Henry was the Horatio Alger of Hardcore, while being surrounded by Circle-A silliness from asshats that did not have a clue what anarchy really represented politically. Rollins was always a careerist at heart and made no bones about it. He turned his stint in Black Flag into being a very successful entertainment mogul on his own terms. He is also worth about 20 million bucks as of 2024 and owned a multimillion-dollar house in the Hollywood Hills before a recent move to Nasville, where I have noticed all the cool people are migrating to lately. Not bad, considering when I last saw Black Flag in the early 80's they were trying to figure how to get enough gas money to make it back to LA. I always appreciated his anti-drug, straightedge stance too. He truly is an original.

This quote particularly rings true for me at this stage of life. So many people my age wallow in nostalgia and rob themselves of living in the present. I notice as of late the rash of musical acts from the 60's, 70's, and even 80's, hitting the road for one last tour and then falling apart with health issues and cancelling. I see all these videos of aging rock stars blabbing about their tours that look like something out of a Saturday Night Live skit. You know some time is slipping by when the Pet Shop Boys look like they should be in a nursing home. I always appreciated that Rollins never became a part of the Black Flag reunions, even when they had two bands on the road at the same time, each claiming to be the real deal, while destroying the band's legacy at the same time. 

Really Rollins is just paraphrasing an old Bible verse from Ecclesiastes: "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven."

 

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