Henry Rollins has a lot to say but no agenda

Musician Henry Rollins, seen here last year in Los Angeles, has a lot to say and he's taking his speaking tour to all 50 state capitals and Washington, D.C. GETTY IMAGES Enlarge

BOISE -- Henry Rollins plans to visit all 50 state capitals on his spoken-word "Capitalism" tour, which will wind up in Washington on the eve of election night.

But the last thing this tattooed, modern-day Renaissance Man wants to convey is some sort of agenda, he says.

"I just want to do 50, 51 good shows," says Rollins, who talks for about 2 1/2 hours at each stop.

"That's the only objective -- to connect with the audience, get across the information I want to, as lean and to-the-point as possible. I would never have the chutzpah or required temerity to tell anyone who to vote for -- which is so rude. I just hope that people do vote. Because democracy really needs you to weigh in."

With his cropped hair, piercing eyes, and tree-trunk neck, Rollins looks the part of a drill sergeant from hell -- or at least a scary white supremacist, a role he played beautifully on season two of FX's motorcycle-gang series Sons of Anarchy. In reality, Rollins is exceedingly thoughtful and polite -- which is probably part of the reason he has been drawn to activism in recent years.

"I'm not a mean person," he says. "If you can help someone out, I think it's a cool thing to do. I'm quite happy to do it."

Remembered by punk-rock fans as the frontman of '80s band Black Flag and his own abrasive group, Rollins Band, the 51-year-old gave up music in 2006 when he stopped coming up with ideas for lyrics.

"It was the right thing to do," he says, "but it was heartbreakingly hard to do. I just can't go out there and be the yesterday machine."

He's spent the last two decades rebranding himself as an intense force of nature: speaker, author, publisher, television and radio host, actor, voiceover talent, and, in recent years, champion for the human spirit.

Much of the material at his spoken-word performances comes from his travels, whether he's filming for National Geographic Channel or taking his own camera crews to faraway lands.

Rollins hopes that his tales inspire others to travel -- and, consequently, to learn.

"People should travel," Rollins says. "As soon as you get out of your area of comfort, immediately you start learning. And some of these places, the learning curve -- I mean, southern Sudan? Uganda? ... Hanging out with kids abducted by the Lords of Resistance Army one day, walking through shallow graves that they're growing corn through on another? This is stuff that causes one to do quite a bit of thinking -- if you avail yourself to that."

The personal rewards are vast. So is the satisfaction he gets telling others about his experiences on tour.

"It's work that I enjoy," he says.

But when Rollins talks about his acting stint with Sons of Anarchy, there's a longing in his voice. Just seeing Sons of Anarchy billboards around Los Angeles or TV ads for the new season makes him envious of the actors still starring on the show, he says.

"If I could be on Sons of Anarchy six months a year," he says, "I'd run at that through a minefield to get that work." But acting roles don't come often for him.

"I'm not an actor, I'm just an opportunist," Rollins says. "Truly, I go after work. I have a high school education. I come from a minimum-wage working world. And so I choose not to fool myself."

In fact, after the "Capitalism" tour winds down at the end of the year, Rollins says, he's basically unemployed.

"I am in a mild state of panic about that. I mean, something always turns up. But I don't want to sleep on that."

If Rollins wants to add another job title to his long resume, he might consider politician. Despite the fact he isn't pushing a specific presidential candidate on his "Capitalism" trek ("I think the side I lean on is flagrantly obvious," he says), Rollins sounds infinitely electable when he addresses voting's importance.

"Truly, whoever wins, I hope they do well by you and me," Rollins says. "I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know who the hell's going to win this thing. But whoever it is, I want the best for all of us -- every single American."