Sunday Music: When Henry Rollins Joined Black Flag

It’s 1980, and two friends are bonding over Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown EP that up to this point they’ve only been reading about.

No streaming in those days kids. You might hear something existed, but that didn’t mean you got to hear it. Up to this point, the band was just a mention in a zine to these friends in D.C.

A few months later, a flier surfaced, saying Black Flag was coming to play the 9:30 Club. One of the friends called Black Flag’s label, said when they got into town, if they needed a place to stay, they could provide it.

And the band said yes.

The show happened, some numbers and addresses and tapes were exchanged, and a friendship was formed.

One of the friends, Henry Garfield, struck up an especially tight connection with Black Flag bandmember Chuck Dukowski. They kind of became pen pals.

At a New York show months later, Garfield took the ride up to see his (now) friends’ band. He had work the next day as manager of the Georgetown Haagen-Dazs ice cream shop, but NYC was close enough to D.C. for a young guy with an old car to make happen.

You have to support your friends, you know?

The band played, and even did a bonus late set show over at 7A (a famous hardcore spot). Black Flag was sort of in between singers at the time, and just about anybody who wanted was taking the mic at 7A that night.

Realizing it was getting late and he’d have to leave to open the ice cream store, Garfield said, “Play ‘Clocked In,” and then added “Can I sing?”

(Lyrics, for background reference)

I have this problem every morning,

I gotta' face the clock;

Punch in, punch out, it makes me so pissed off

One of these days I'm gonna smash it off the wall!

Go home!

The band said yes, Garfield did the song, then popped offstage, got into his beat up Volkswagen, and drove all the way back to D.C. to open the ice cream store at 9am because that’s what good, responsible young people do.

A few days later they called him. That’s a better call than the ice cream store manager. They said they wanted him to come audition.

Garfield made the trek, played some songs, and after an awkward band-meeting pause they said bluntly, “So you want to join this band or what?”

He went home to D.C. to decide, and called up his friend. The one he picked up the record with a few short years ago.

“Ian, should I do this?”

“Henry. GO.”

Henry Garfield listened to his friend, Ian MacKaye, quit his job, left his apartment, sold his stuff, and bought a ticket to Detroit, to join the band on tour.

He got a Black Flag tattoo. And seeing as he was changing his entire life by entering this new chapter, he decided to change his name too.

From that point on, he’d go by the fake name he and Ian used to use as teenagers, Henry Rollins.

What are you doing?

Who are you doing it for?

Most importantly of all, who are you doing it with?

Here’s Black Flag are in Hartford, CT of all places - not long after (video says 1982) - doing “Clocked In”

massive h/t and respect to Michael Azerrad, whose books are always must-buys. This story is mostly adapted from Our Band Could Be Your Life. I’m working on a few Minutemen posts and this one was just too good to pass by. I love the idea of Rollins working at an ice cream store and debating if he should let that go to join Black Flag so much.