Date of birth: February 13, 1961 (Age: 55 years)
Height: 5′ 9″ (175 cm)
Weight: 176 lbs (80 kg) approximately
Hair color: Brown/Grey
Eye color: Grey
Being a child, Henry Rollins was a subject of the school ridicules and threats, coupled with the fear and humiliation that he regularly suffered from. At school, the future star was told that nothing good will come out of him. But he broke the system!
Henry was bony spasticity. When he was teased, he ran home, crying and wondering why. The boy understood very well why they gang up on him. He was the one that ought to run down. People laughed at him in gym and never accepted him to the team.
Rollins was good at boxing, but only because the fury overflown his whole conscious being, made him wild and unpredictable. He fought with a strange ferocity. Everyone thought that man was crazy.
Although it is silly now, at that time he wanted to look like his mates. He wanted to talk as they talked, dress as the dressed, behave with that ease that is peculiar to anyone who can pass along the corridor during a break and know that he was not beaten.
When Henry looked in the mirror and saw his pale face, more than anything else he wanted to turn into one of them – at least for one night, in order to understand what it is, their well-established happiness.
Years passed, and that boy has learned to keep it all in himself.
Years passed before Rollins fully realized the value of the lessons learned from the Iron. Only close to thirty years, he realized that was the greatest gift. The musician learned to accept himself, he realized that nothing good comes without effort and a certain amount of pain.
Many musicians go to the gym just to look good on stage, but it’s not about Henry Rollins. His relationship with dumbbells, barbells and training equipment gained truly philosophical depth that is best reflected in a famous essay “Iron and soul”, the last paragraph of which is better to quote:
“Iron is always with you. Friends come and go. In an instant, the man who, as you thought, you know, can become a person with whom you are no longer able to stand next to. Hobbies come and go, almost everything comes and goes. And there is Iron. Two hundred pounds – always two hundred pounds. Iron – a great landmark, omniscient source of prospects. It is always there, like a beacon in the pitch darkness. I came to the conclusion that the Iron is my best friend. It is never satisfied with the tantrums, doesn’t escapes from me and it never lies”.
