Rise above the usual tennis banter with punk icon Henry Rollings.

By James Martin
Photo by Bob King/Wire Image

Henry Rollins is no country-clubber. An intense, articulate man with tattoos and attitude to spare, he was the lead singer of the definitive Los Angeles hardcore band Black Flag, and now heads up Rollins Band. He¹s also the host of The Henry Rollins Show on IFC, where he chats about art with mavericks of movies (Oliver Stone, Werner Herzog) and music (Chuck D, Frank Black).

But right now Rollins is talking about his lifelong interest in tennis. “I used to watch on my mother’s LP-size TV,” Rollins says. “I was into all the big personalities like Muhammad Ali, outspoken and incredibly talented. They bragged, but they delivered.”

Rollins, 45, got a second-hand taste of the tour in 1980, when one of his friends, a Black Flag roadie, turned pro. “He sweated it out on the lower level of the circuit and got his ass kicked all the time,” Rollins says. “He was a teaching pro and a  really good player but he realized he wasn’t going to make it professionally.”

IN the 1980s, Rollins liked Mats Wilander (“he showed no emotion,” he says) and Ivan Lendl. “I remember watching him play Pat Cash in the Australian Open. Lendl, man, I really admired him. Grim, stone-faced. He bounced the ball three times before his first serve. He never deviated. He was a machine.” Here are a few of Rollins’ other thoughts on the sport.

What’s your best tennis memory? “In 1991, I went to my fi rst match. It was Mac versus Lendl at the L.A. Forum. My friend and I were broke, so we got nose-bleed seats, where people acted like they were at a Scorpions concert, just going nuts. And Mac won. He had Lendl running all over the court. Brains beat brawn.”

Did you ever meet McEnroe? “I met him once, at CBGB. And I was on his talk show before it got canceled. I talked about how he beat Lendl at the Forum. After the show, he said he was really glad I told the story. I said how I admired both him and Lendl. And he goes, ‘Yeah, whatever. F--- Lendl.’ [Laughs] I guess you have to have that killer instinct all the time if you’re going to be No. 1.”

Do you admire any current players? “I like to watch Federer. And I really enjoyed watching Marcos Baghdatis in Australia. He was so happy to get that far in the tournament. It was a victory for him.”

What do you like about the game? “I understand what the players put their bodies through— the knees, the hips, and the rotator cuffs all going through the grind. It’s brutal. You go back and watch stock footage of tennis—it’s all gentle and slow. Now these players are hitting so hard and throwing their bodies into every shot, both the men and women. There’s more testosterone in the game.”