Rollins With the Punches

Punk purists have been going after Rollins, too, taking him to task for supposed sins such as his signing with DreamWorks, the music arm of the massive conglomerate founded by David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Time cover boy Steven Spielberg. But Rollins rejects any suggestion of a sellout. "I passed Spielberg in the hallway at Dreamworks one day and I said, 'How do you do? My name is Henry Rollins.' I've never seen him again, and I doubt if I ever will. I met David Geffen for ten minutes, twenty minutes, something like that. And I've never met Katzenberg. I don't even know what he looks like, and I don't really know what he does. So it's not as if these people are involved in the writing process, nor are they in the studio with us, nor did they tell us what to do. I did everything. I picked the photographer for the record. I came up with the cover for the record; that's an X-ray of my skull on the cover. I wrote all the lyrics. I picked the producer. And the only thing the people at the record company did was say 'Okay.' We gave them a demo and said, 'This is what we do. It's not going to change that much from the demo to the album. I'm not going to bring in a string section, and I'm not going to turn into some chick. Can you deal with that?' And they said, 'Yeah.' So if you don't like it, don't blame them. Blame me."

Many people are, but Rollins claims that these barbs don't faze him. His 2.13.61 firm has a busy year in front of it. Music-wise, Rollins has just reissued several albums by Nick Cave's original band, the Birthday Party, and plans to roll out the red carpet for efforts by revered free-jazz players such as Matthew Shipp and Charles Gale; on the publishing end, he's enthusiastic about a collection of violent short stories by Vietnam veteran Bill Shields and a potpourri of material from Cynthia Geller, whom he describes as "an ex-prostitute, ex-porno actress and very talented writer. She's very lucid, very sharp, and one of the most brutally honest people I've ever met."

With so much on his plate, Rollins could easily decide to put his musical efforts on the shelf. But he swears this won't happen, no matter how much his critics might wish that it would. "The band isn't a moneymaking proposition," he says. "I make all kinds of money doing speaking dates, but with the band, I make a tiny little salary. So I'm not doing this for dough. I'm doing this because I like to rock out with the guys. I show up for work and do my thing with all the guts I've got, and I've been doing it for seventeen years. So after a certain point, I don't give a fuck anymore."

Rollins Band, with Skunk Anansie. 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, Ogden Theatre, 935 East Colfax, $17.50, 1-800-444-