Rollins Band

Rollins Band was an American rock band founded in Van Nuys, California, active from 1987 to 2006. The band was led by Henry Rollins, known for his previous role as the vocalist for Black Flag. Rollins Band became known for their distinct sound, which critics Steve Huey described as “uncompromising, intense, cathartic fusions of funk, post-punk, noise, and jazz experimentalism, with Rollins shouting angry, biting self-examinations and accusations over the grind.” This unique approach helped them gain attention, particularly with songs like “Low Self Opinion” and “Liar,” which received significant airplay on MTV in the early to mid-1990s. In 2000, Rollins Band was included on VH1’s ‘100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock’, reaching No. 47.

The band went through several distinct lineups. The first iteration, from 1987 to 1994, featured Chris Haskett on guitar, Andrew Weiss on bass, and Sim Cain on drums. This lineup was praised as a “brilliant, strong ensemble” by Ira Robbins and Regina Joskow, who noted their bluesy, thrashy, swing take on the styles of Jimi Hendrix, focusing on purposeful noise rather than mere volume. Following internal tensions, Weiss was replaced by jazz and funk veteran Melvin Gibbs in 1994, forming the second edition of the band. This period saw the release of their highly successful album “Weight” in the same year, which included the hit single “Liar.” The band performed at Woodstock ’94 and Rollins himself hosted several MTV programs.

The second lineup, active until 1997, further explored jazz influences, particularly from Miles Davis, due to Gibbs’s background and Rollins’s interest. They released “Come In and Burn” in 1997 through DreamWorks Records, which featured the single “Starve” and led to an appearance on Saturday Night Live. After this, Rollins dissolved the group, citing creative stagnation. He later formed a third version of the Rollins Band with members of Mother Superior, releasing albums like “Get Some Go Again” (2000) and “Nice” (2001), which adopted a more straightforward hard rock style. A brief reunion of the second lineup occurred in 2006, but Rollins eventually retired from music, concluding Rollins Band’s activity.