Long-time rock-n-roll journalist and current managing editor at CoolCleveland.com (and my good friend) Peter Charkerian meets Henry Rollins:
Yesterday, me and the L’il Man are cruising the aisles at Trader Joe’s for some dinner fixins. We stop and say hello to our pal Carrie who works there. I’m pondering the Mandarin Orange Chicken and a bag of Edamame; All of the sudden, I catch a familiar face in my field of vision and can’t quite believe my eyes — I was up with the L’il Man for 3 hours the night before, so seeing this punk legend, author, actor and IFC lynchpin in a grocery store really could be a hallucination.
It’s not a hallucination. He’s in town for his Provoked gig tonight. He looks up from shopping with his female companion, and as he is explaining why he usually buys this certain kind of frozen vegetable, he sees me staring (I assume with my dropped jaw) and smiles one of those quietly intense smiles he always flashes. “What a cute little guy,” he says to the L’il Man, smiling at him. I approach, not knowing what to say. “Thanks,” I gulp and extend my hand to shake. This is weird. Unexpected. Not rehearsed for this. Doesn’t happen every day. Damn, I don’t even have a Sharpie and my copy of The Portable is nowhere near.
And I interview people all the time — so how come this run-in with Henry Rollins is different? I preface my approach with an apology. I know famous people usually hate this, especially when they’re trying to live their normal life. “Hi, sorry… I love you, man. All your work, especially your writing and spoken word stuff…”
Make sure you click thru for the pics.
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