Henry Rollins Column: How to Talk to Right Wing Talk Show Callers

Maura Lanahan

Our eminent columnist, Mr. Henry Rollins!

This installment includes Henry's thoughts on the lull before New Year's in LA and talking to annoying radio talk show callers, plus the awesomely annotated playlist for his KCRW BROADCAST #94 for tomorrow, Saturday 12-18-10. For more details please visit KCRW.com and HenryRollins.com]

I like this time of year in Los Angeles. Things slow down a little, the standing ambient roar of the city dulls by a few decibels and, as we get closer to the end of the month, the population will noticeably decrease as many people migrate to other locations for whatever reason compels them.

Los Angeles, at the end of the year starts to feel less like a city and more like a huge, sprawling town. I must say, I don't mind it all that much.

It is in this time when the character of the city changes, becomes more analog, more humane and not so driven and impersonal.
 
For me, this time of the year is when I cross the finish line, about fifty weeks out of the fifty-two.

Management, agents and the rest are rolling it up for the year and leaving the building as it were. It is in a way, a mutually agreed-upon truce. We will all be back to run roughshod over each other in a couple of weeks as we throw ourselves headlong into the new year, full of resolutions and determination.

Over the last several days, I have been getting up very early and doing three to four hours of press. Good Day LA, Carson Daly, Daily Habit, a myriad radio stations all over America, all to promote a National Geographic Explorer special called Born To Rage?, which premiered on the National Geographic Channel last Tuesday night.

The press went smoothly enough for the most part. Now and then, some snark but that's easily dealt with. You get to a certain age and station in life where you really, I mean really, don't care what someone thinks about you. Belief in the First Amendment overrides my need to be liked all the time. When one gentleman at some station in our incredible America called me Henry Collins, I just went along with it, no need to correct.

I am often able to hear the radio hosts before I am on with them and hear either what they really think of me or what is on the minds of their callers. It's all I can do to stay on topic sometimes. There is the great temptation to chime in.

While waiting to engage with Dennis Miller, I listened to him talk with a listener who wanted to take his country back and go back to a different time.