Punk talker: Henry Rollins gets serious.

Byline: Carolyn Lamberson The Register-Guard

Henry Rollins is one serious guy. Just look at him. Dark, piercing eyes. Chiseled chin. Multiple tatoos. Well-muscled body.

For Rollins - a multitasker who sings punk rock, acts in movies, hosts a television show, writes books and performs on spoken word tours around the world - serious is more than skin deep. Get him on the phone for 30 minutes and you'll chat with a guy who would never dare to call himself a great thinker, but who sounds like one.

Seriously, I don't often interview performers who get hot about the Davis-Bacon Act. Henry Rollins gets hot about the Davis-Bacon Act.

(Not familiar with the Davis-Bacon Act? It's the 1931 law that requires government contractors to pay prevailing local wages for workers. President Bush rescinded the law in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; he reinstated it after facing intense criticism. Thus ends the civics lesson of the day.)

He also gets hot about Wal-Mart memos suggesting a way to cut insurance costs is by discriminating against, Rollins said, `the overweight, the old and the frail.'

He calls himself a "huge fan" of CNN's Lou Dobbs and said he's read everything he can get his hands on about the situation in Afghanistan.

`That stuff to me is really interesting,' Rollins said, speaking by phone from a tour stop in St. Louis.

Other topics of conversation? His ongoing work with the USO, for starters: "I've been fairly far and wide with the USO, to Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, places like that.'

Rollins also recounts a recent train trip he took across Siberia.

`That was interesting, living alone in a frozen box for a week, going across Siberia, which is kind of why I went for it, because I knew it would be kind of cold and extreme and strange. I booked that one and came back with some pretty cool stories.'

His latest tour, "25 Years of B.S.," will stop by the McDonald Theatre on Monday. At the McDonald, it's likely he'll tell those stories, and he'll riff on whatever events of the day strike a chord.

`The events of the world are completely fascinating and horrifying at the moment,' he said, "so I can't not make comment about that.'

Rollins says he doesn't find it exhausting being angry all the time. He said it's his duty.

"It's great to be 44 and still be passionate about things,' he said. "I hope that never goes away ... a sense of civic dissatisfaction and anger to me is almost your duty as a concerned American.

`I'm not looking for insurrection and riot in the streets and people getting dragged by their heels. I just don't want the old ladies freezing solid in their buildings in Michigan, and I want books in the ghetto.

`It's not too much to ask.'

Rockin' the renaissance

Rollins, who often is called a "post-punk renaissance man," first rose to prominence in the 1980s, when he became the lead singer of the legendary Los Angeles punk band Black Flag. After the band split up in 1986, Rollins formed the Rollins Band, with whom he has recorded nearly a dozen albums.

The band's song "Liar," off the 1994 album "Weight," was nominated for a Grammy. A solo Rollins took home a Grammy in '94, in the spoken-world category, for his audiobook of his memoir "Get in the Van: On the Road With Black Flag."

He also owns his own publishing company, 2.13.61 Publications (named after his birthdate). It publishes not only his work but works by other musicians, including Nick Cave.

He's played either a cop or a robber in several films, including Michael Mann's heist drama "Heat" and David Lynch's trippy "Lost Highway."

His latest project is "The Henry Rollins Show" on the Independent Film Channel. It started last year as a monthly film review show.

In 2006, IFC has ordered 20 episodes and will air the program weekly. The program will dominate his year, but Rollins - ever the workaholic - has other plans as well.

`I've got two book projects I'm working on, and I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of USO work; I hope to be doing a lot of USO work,' he said. "And I've got a bunch of European speaking dates starting in the spring. I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of university dates in America next year, and I'll be working on some mu- sic.

`So basically, between being asleep and in the shower, the rest of my time is going to be all of that.'

CONCERT PREVIEW

Henry Rollins: 25 Years of B.S.

When: 8 p.m. Monday

Where: McDonald Theatre, 1010 Willamette St.

Tickets: $20 in advance through TicketsWest; $20 day of show

CAPTION(S):

Henry Rollins fronted legendary punk bands Black Flag and the Rollins Band. Now he's working a cappella. `I'm not looking for insurrection and riot in the streets and people getting dragged by their heels. I just don't want the old ladies freezing solid in their buildings in Michigan.' - HENRY ROLLINS, POST-PUNK PONTIFICATOR