He's armed with words

Tell Henry Rollins you are a Nickelback fan and prepare to be shoved out of the passenger seat. Proclaim your homophobia and warmongering and he will intellectualize the guts out of you. Rollins does not have much patience for narrow-mindedness, though he does have a sense of humor about it.

The rippled, ink-riddled spoken word artist, musician and comedian is a left-leaning firecracker with a Dennis Miller-meets-Dennis Leary brand of commentary. And his fall tour, from September to November, is smack dab in the thick of election season. So how does the political climate affect his stage shows?

"What I see and read and hear in the run up to the election certainly informs my attitude and mood onstage," Rollins said in a recent interview. "It's not the whole show, of course, but we are living in interesting times, and Sarah Palin has served herself up to me like sushi and I will have my fun."

The former vocalist for the hardcore punk band Black Flag and current front man of the Rollins Band, Rollins owns his own publishing company and recording label called 2.13.61. He has spearheaded the TV programs "The Henry Rollins Show" and "Harmony in My Head," appeared on MTV's "Jackass" and "120 Minutes," made cameos in a slew of films, disc jockeyed on radio stations and composed poetry, books and magazine columns.

Of spoken word, which is Rollins' touring medium for the Tampa-bound "Recountdown 2008," he said: "It allows me to be reflective of the life I am living. That's working for me at this point."

Known for his efforts as a human rights activist, Rollins has hosted such awareness-boosting events as the Wed- Rock benefit concert in 2004, in support of gay marriage. And, while maintaining an anti-war stance, he has also traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq with the United Service Organizations (USO) to pay visits to American troops. His hours at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Bethesda Naval Hospital were his most emotionally draining, he said.

"I have met a lot of young men with all kinds of disfigurement. That stays with you," Rollins said. "I leave those visits feeling pretty wiped out but all the more certain that war must be avoided and can be avoided."

Rollins relays the sentiment in his "Shock and Awe" DVD, named for a same-titled tour in 2004, which is a dry-witted series of stand-up bits about everything from bad dates to the downfall of mainstream music to what he views as George W. Bush's hypocrisy.

"I don't think I am a civil rights activist as much I am just an American burdened with a sense of fair play," Rollins said. "Doesn't, by the very nature of being an American, make you a civil rights activist? Are we not to be vigilant and protective of our civil rights and by doing so, be so for every other American?"

It's a rhetorical question Rollins often poses in his rants. Screw with his civil liberties, or anyone else's for that matter, and expect a dishonorable mention.