See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! South Africa's Present and Future

Fanatics! What a show! So many new tracks! Besides that, we give our thanks to some great musicians who have recently passed away. The last few weeks have been very tough with all the sad news of Chuck Brown, Adam Yauch, Duck Dunn, Donna Summer and Robin Gibb.

I am back from the shows in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa and what a great time all that was. I got back here a few days ago and almost immediately wanted to go back to the airport and fly back to NZ and start it all over again.

Since I have been out, a lot of records have come into the office. I brought back quite a few from tour, so there's a lot to sort through and over the next few weeks, we will get into some of these.

Tonight, we have a lot of firsts. Let's get into it!

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A few hours from now, I will be climbing onto the stage at a venue called the Bassline, here in Johannesburg, South Africa. This will be my third time performing in this country. The audiences have been, in all the cities I have played here, really good. South Africa is a relatively new stop on my tour. I now come here after my shows in Perth, Australia. The 11-hour flight and time change leave me a little dazed for a day or two, but I turn around pretty quickly.

I'm currently staying in a place called Melrose Arch. It looks like a gated city-state. I think I am put up here for insurance reasons, or perhaps it gives my great promoter John one less thing to worry about. The bodyguard, Zenzo, he's definitely part of the insurance package.

Yesterday was a day off. I went with Zenzo to Soweto (South West Townships) and we walked around for quite a while. Most interesting was visiting Nelson Mandela's old home there.

See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! Advice From Diamond Dave

Fanatics! Hello from Cape Town! Before we go any further, I want to say that hours ago, I read about the passing of Chuck Brown, the legendary Washington, D.C., musician, the founding father of go-go funk. He was 75. Perhaps next week, when we are all together live on the radio, we will play a little Chuck Brown to salute this great man. Let's do that.

I have done my first of the three shows here in South Africa. Last night was Johannesburg, and then tomorrow night, it's here in Cape Town, and then on to Durban, and then back to the USA. Last night's show was a great time. I have a really good audience in Johannesburg, and it was yet another good night. I am looking forward to the Cape Town show, that's always great as well, and I have never been to Durban before, so I am looking forward to that.

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Still in Australia, with a lot more shows to go. Right now, I am in Brisbane. We got in a few hours ago from Cairns in the north. Before that, we were in Darwin, which is way up at the top of the country. Last night was a sauna -- I came off stage soaked. Now that we're more south, the weather is far less hot and humid.

I am 70-some shows into the tour. This is where some performer types either head home or start dialing in the show from their happy place countless mind-miles away. For me, this is where it gets really good, like the second hour straight on the treadmill. It takes about 50 shows to really know you're doing this for keeps; it's the part of the tour that makes you see how much you really want to do this. The show is either something you live for or want to run away from.

See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! R.I.P. MCA

Fanatics! Hello from beautiful Western Australia! This will be the last Saturday I will be here. Soon, off to South Africa for a few shows and then, on the 26th, of this month, we will be live on the radio! I look forward to that. I know the pre-taped shows are not nearly as fun as the live ones but at least the music is good and thank you so much for putting up with the slightly stilted nature of them. We do the best we can to make them great.

I have been picking up some really great records here that will make their presence known very soon. As well, I have a lot of music waiting at the office for me to get into that we will get activated as soon as we can.

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See also:
*Adam Yauch, RIP: A Life in Photos
*Let's Not Reduce Adam Yauch's Career to a Single Lyric

A few days ago, I woke up to the sad news that Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys had lost his battle with cancer and passed away.

As the sun started to set in Hobart, Australia -- where I was performing that night -- I became sadder and sadder. I wanted to talk about him during the show but, not having had much time to think about what I would say, I didn't want to get anything wrong or in any way be misunderstood. So I said nothing about him and kept it all to myself.

See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! Hunting, Gut Stew, and Sex With Your Sister

Fanatics! I am still here in Australia. The shows have been going great and I have been picking up a lot of great Australian music that we will throw into the mix in our upcoming shows.

I am so glad you all liked the Heavy Blanket album from last week. Make sure to keep that release date in mind so you can get an LP before they all get sold. Updates are on the label's site.

Tonight, we have a lot of Australian music and a lot of our more familiar contributors. It's a great night of listening with a good stretch at the end of the second hour that I think you will like. We are working our way outwards into the stratosphere and into the unfamiliar as the weather grows warmer.

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Still in Australia, get used to it! I will be here for quite a while. Things are going very well here. I am several shows in, and the audiences have been great. The icing on the cake is that the record stores have been quite forthcoming: Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced mono Japanese pressing and the Record Store Day Devo Live in Seattle 1981 2-LP set at reasonable prices were welcome additions. Not to mention Total Control's Henge Beat album, direct from the band, with some of their members showing up at one of our Melbourne shows.

As we were discussing last week, Australia is full of great bands, with more coming up all the time. I just got a great stack of singles from the Vicious Sloth record store in Melbourne. I must confess, I am not familiar with any of them, but the A-sides sounded great so I picked them up. I will get them all into future radio shows this year as soon as I can.

See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! Down Under and 
Hard to Find

Fanatics! Hello from beautiful Sydney, Australia. I am a few hours away from another show here. I have been finding some great records here that will find themselves in our upcoming shows over the summer. I think you're going to like what we will be laying on you in the weeks and months upcoming!

In our first hour, we will be rocking some serious guitar heavy hitters. If you look down the list, it's all heavy weight all the way through but you will notice something conceptual in the second part of our show.

Now, in tonight's second hour, we have a very special record we will be playing for your in its entirety. A side project of our good pal J Mascis called Heavy Blanket will be releasing their first and perhaps only album on May 8. Visit J Mascis' site for more information.

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I am currently in Australia. This will mark my 30th trip to this country since I first came here in 1989. From the very start, Australia fascinated me on many levels. For a history of how Australia came to be known as such, you might want to check out Robert Hughes' book The Fatal Shore. What a backstory. It might make you see some similarities with another large landmass where, centuries ago, voyagers came ashore and did some radical land appropriation from the indigenous people.

Years previous to my first setting foot in Sydney, I had been listening to Australian bands for many years. They included the Saints, the Victims, Radio Birdman, the Scientists, the Birthday Party and all of the spinoff projects post-BP breakup in 1983 (the Bad Seeds, Crime and the City Solution and SPK), to name a handful.

See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! Happy Birthday Iggy Pop! Your Biggest Fan, Henry

Fanatics! Hello from Melbourne, Australia! Tonight's show is a very special one. Today, one Iggy Pop turns 65 years old. There is no better way we can say happy birthday to the man than to let the music play, so that is what we are going to do.

We are going to go at it somewhat chronologically, although I may have a couple of songs out of order on that front but by and large, it's a trip through the man's catalog. Two hours isn't enough time to be completely release-by-release, so I went for what I thought sounded good.

At this point, I don't think any of you Fanatics needs any introduction to Iggy but if any of these tracks grabs you, all the source material is pretty easy to locate. I don't know how available the soundtrack material is in our second hour but I don't think it will escape you for long if you look around. All in all, a great night of Iggy in a few of his phases. I really like that duet with Debbie Harry, very cool.

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Iggy Pop, who was born on April 21, 1947, turns 65 this Saturday. It is perhaps a waste of time to assign an age to someone so uniquely ageless, but it gives me an excuse to write about him. The passing years have made his face all the more charismatic; his cheekbones and jaw line are more rugged, his eyes more fiercely focused.

Does he need an introduction? After all this time, do we have to point out that Iggy Pop was born James Osterberg in the great state of Michigan? Do we need to say that, together with the Asheton brothers, Ron and Scott, and Dave Alexander, he formed the Stooges, a band that is as essential to rock music as water is to life?

See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! Japanese Guitar Freaks From Outer Space

Fanatics! I am Australia bound. At this moment, I am in Wellington, New Zealand with show #60 for the year a few hours behind me. I will be in Australia for quite a long spell for shows and press. As always, I am looking forward to it. I have been in NZ for a few days and the shows have been great. So glad to be back onstage every night. It' hard to take time off in the middle of a tour but last week with Ian was certainly worth it.

I am extremely happy with the line up with have for you here. There are some Australian greats peppered throughout the show to pay tribute to the mighty OZ. We again visit the great Eddy Current song "It's All Square" as we did last week -- it's a great one and Ian and I were on the same wavelength.

I am off the road for a few days, from the tour that never ends. One of the upsides is that I get a chance to listen to a few albums without the pressure of a show waiting for me. I have been making my choices carefully -- I don't have much time before I leave again.

To combat the confusion and depression that assault me when I come off the road in the middle of a tour, I seek the most oblivionated music possible. When it's the "way out there" that I seek, I go right to my stash of amazing music from Japan.

It's just my opinion, but some of the most mind-frying records I have ever heard have been made by Japanese artists. Sure, Jimi Hendrix will always be my favorite guitar player -- after all, I was raised with his music, and those sounds are burned deep into my mind. But picking up the baton and blasting fearlessly into the vast darkness of the unexplored regions of the cosmos are ultimate guitar freaks like Makoto Kawabata of the 10,000-light-years-from-home house band Acid Mothers Temple.

See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! We Are the Aliens, Everyone Else Is Earthling

Fanatics! I must say, I don't have much of a clue as to what songs Ian has chosen to bring with him. As you know, tonight, we are live with Ian MacKaye, who happens to be in town. I have been talking with the man over the last few nights and what the plan seems to be is that we are going to bring a lot of music and see what happens. Should be a great time, whatever happens.

Just a little heads up on some of the goodness coming your way: