Henry Rollins appeared once again on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast this week. The two-and-a-half-hour episode saw the former–Black Flag figurehead outlining his new Showtime comedy special Keep Talking, Pal, detailing his battle with social anxiety and his unlikely friendship with George Carlin, giving his take on Donald Trump's recent widely-criticized summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin, and more.
Reflecting on his transition from music and acting to stand-up comedy, Rollins said that he found the latter much easier to pick up than the former. "I felt like a fish dropped into water for the first time — like, hey, I'm a fish!" he recalled. "I didn't have a band, but I had no stage fright: just me and a microphone. It felt more natural than music ever felt – which [had been] cool to do, but never felt natural.
"With music, it was like 'This thing is in me, it's got to come out: I'm serving a monster,'" Rollins added. "[Whereas] the talking shows are just like, 'This is me.'" Later, he revealed that his preferred pre-show warm-up exercises include reciting Abraham Lincoln speeches and reading the Constitution aloud.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Rollins interview without timely political banter. The rocker's conversation with Rogan wrapped up with a discussion about domestic and international affairs, namely the Trump/Putin summit. "Never in my life have I ever watched an American president and thought I could have done better in that situation," he mused. "There's presidents I've had nothing but disagreements with, but they were way better for the job than I ever could be."
"I look at this guy, and I'm like, 'Man ... you got played," he concluded.
Rollins' Keep Talking, Pal premieres tonight (August 10th) on Showtime at 10 PM Eastern.
