Henry Rollins

When the Rollins Band performs, frontman and namesake Henry Rollins generally swaps onstage patter for brutal musical statements. But when Hank leaves the band at home for his annual spoken-word tour, you can't shut the guy up. With topics free-ranging from Spinal Tappish road tales to gone-awry romances and even the frightening contents of his morning breakfast, Rollins covers everything under the kitchen sink. Then he covers it again. Generally these stream-of-soliloquy marathons last well into the two-hours-plus range, but the time flies by in a heartbeat. Rollins has to be one of the most articulate people ever to bench-press 500 pounds. He's also funny as hell. Whereas prose purveyors such as Jello Biafra stick to leftist poli-sci, Rollins is smart enough to keep the laughs coming. And though his way with words has recently made Rollins a popular cable-TV act, he's a seasoned veteran of the verse who's been perfecting the art of storytelling since his Black Flag days.