Under ordinary circumstances, Henry Rollins wouldn’t be caught dead playing the songs of his legendary Los Angeles hardcore band Black Flag. To do so would be akin to punk-rock sacrilege, and it isn’t as if Rollins had a shortage of other things to do. Since the Flag disbanded, in 1986, he’s become a one-man cottage industry: when he’s not on the road with his own Rollins Band, he’s usually on the road with a spoken-word tour, or promoting his indie-publishing empire, or shilling for the Gap, or acting (his latest role is a part in Bad Boys II), or recording voiceovers for video games, or lending his imposing, tattoo-covered personage to the likes of the Learning Channel’s Full Metal Challenge. But when Hammerin’ Hank comes to Axis this Sunday, with the Rollins Band backing him, he will for the first — and, he claims, last — time since the ’80s be performing an entire set drawn from the Black Flag catalogue.
"If I were making money on this, I wouldn’t do it," he says over the phone from LA. "That would be repellent to me. But special circumstances require extraordinary measures. And why we’re doing it makes it okay."
The "special circumstances" he’s referring to concern the plight of the West Memphis Three — Jessie Misskelley, Jason Baldwin, and Damien Echols. As teenagers in West Memphis, Arkansas, they were in 1994 found guilty of a horrific triple child murder, which the town’s police department and DA immediately ascribed to a Satanic sacrifice. The case, which came to national attention via the HBO documentaries Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000), was marred by botched police work, and practically the only evidence against the accused was Misskelley’s ever-changing, very possibly coerced (he has an IQ of 72), confession. Most of the trial focused on the trivial and not-quite-circumstantial: the three teens were Metallica fans and had a passing interest in wicca. Misskelley and Baldwin are now serving life sentences; Echols is on death row. "These three kids went to jail with black Pink Floyd T-shirts and Stephen King novels being held up against them," Rollins says. "Guilty or innocent, in this country it takes more than that to put someone in jail. These guys did not enjoy due process. This infuriates me."
So last fall, Rollins released Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs To Benefit the West Memphis Three (Sanctuary), a disc that featured Rollins, ex-Flag members Chuck Dukowski and Kira Roessler, and punk and metal luminaries including Mike Patton, Lemmy Kilmister, and Iggy Pop — all tearing the shit out of Black Flag chestnuts. And now the possibility of new DNA tests has raised hopes for a new trial. DNA testing, however, is prohibitively expensive. So Rollins is taking the Black Flag songs on the road, in the hope that the tour will eventually net the $100,000 the tests will cost. "Our interest is only in evidence. We’re not saying, ‘Let’s send all three boys home.’ I’m saying, "Let’s go to court. Ring the bell, first round, let’s get it on. Let’s see where evidence and the truth lead us.’ "
Ever the pragmatist, Rollins makes no bones about his role on this tour. He didn’t write any of the songs in Black Flag, and so this time around, he wrote in a letter on his Web site, "We are a cover band. I should add that when I say cover, I mean you better take cover when we hit the stage, because we’re not fucking around." Aiding and abetting Rollins will be Black Flag’s first singer (and subsequent Circle Jerk front man), Keith Morris. "He has an eight-song set at the beginning and he just goes out and shreds it. He just rips it. It’s inspiring."
And though "this is a one-time-only tour," Rollins says, he has been enjoying the trip down memory lane. "It’s really a blast. I mean, we look forward to band practice now. Well, I always look forward to it, but this is like, ‘Oh, goody!’ "
The Rollins Band and Keith Morris perform the songs of Black Flag to benefit the West Memphis Three this Sunday, June 15, at Axis, 13 Lansdowne Street. Tickets are $20; call (617) 423-6000.
