Henry Rollins: Uncut from Israel

Henry Rollins:
[visiting injured Iraq War veterans] So I'm shoved in this door, my first visit, and I see this guy sitting in bed and his arm is in a cast and it's more than a broken arm; there's pins and wires and strings, he's kinda floating in space and it looks like a very painful thing. So I said "Hey man, I'm Henry!" he said "I'm so-and-so, that's the mom." So I said, "Hey man, what happened?" He said "Well, I'm not too sure; we got hit with something, I flew through the air and I landed, got up, and looked down and I saw my arm on the ground." NO ONE has ever said that to me in my life!

Henry Rollins:
I was like [horrified look] Henry Rollins: "With all due respect; FUUUUUUUUUCK!" He says "No kidding!" I said, "Then what did ya do?" He said "I walked over and I picked it up." And he finished that by saying "I recognized it." And I have no reason to lie to this guy, I said "STOP TAPE. Do you realize how insane what you just said was?" And he said "Yeah, that IS pretty weird!"

Henry Rollins:
[on visiting Iraq War veterans in military hospitals] I did one recently; I was walking down the hallway with my clipboard and all the names I have to see and a woman comes out of a room and she says "Excuse me, you look familiar." Moi? "Oui!" She says "C'mere." And I said "Yes ma'am!" And she says "Look at this photo..." And I go into this little hospital room and I look up on the wall and there's a photo of me standing next to a soldier and I say "Yup, that's me! Short, gray and angry!" And the guy I'm standing next to is a big, handsome hunk of a man and I say...

Henry Rollins:
[pointing] isssss *that* the guy in the picture?" and there's a guy in a hospital bed in the semi-fetal position, he's got the diaper on, his hands are gnarled, one eye's lookin' that way, one eye's lookin' that way, and he's drooling. She says "Yup, that's him." I said, "Ohhhh... what's his name and what happened?" She said his name & she said 40% of his brain was removed, you know, head trauma. I said "Ok, well, at least he's still got 60% of it, I say 'never say die'". So I go back to the guy & I say "Hey man, how ya doin'?" And he looks up, his eyes focus and he smiles and he says my name! He remembers me! And I'm like "You remember me!" So I gotta figure out my angle immediately, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna f*** with him! "Motherf***er!" And he's like "Huh?" "You thought you could get away from me, didn't you? I'm your number one fan and chief stalker! We did a photo and you snuck away from me! I've been searching for you up and down hallways of airports, through weddings, bar mitzvahs and social events, disco parties and raves, and up and down the linoleum-lined hallways of Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, and HA! I FOUND YOU! Young man are you ready for photo-op number two or WHAT?" Big smile across his face, he says "Yeah!" I said "Move over, I'm comin' in!" So I kinda like, get in bed with this guy and his mom is like "Oh my god, who is this maniac with my son?" The USO woman comes in, I'm like elbowin' this guy outta his bed and she's like "Oh no, we're all gonna get sued!" I said "Get your cameras out! I said, alright, in this photo we're breakin' outta here!" And we're both like "ARRRRRRGH!" Did all these really fun photos. And I walked out & took one last look at that adult diaper and this amazing woman, his mother, and I wondered if *she* put that diaper on him, and I wondered if she was gonna be putting that diaper on her child, her big, strong, son for the rest of his life and for the rest of her life. And when you see the pain that this war is extolling upon these good people, it makes me at least realize it's more than just the injury.