Joe Rogan - Henry Rollins Explains His Work Ethic

Like we always look at you guys and go, wow, I don't know how the fuck you guys do it. Because you, there's not as much, like you, you might do the same size venues that we do, but you're splitting the money with all these fucking people. Yep. You know? And then a lot of times today, the record company gets a piece, they get a piece of everything, right? They get a piece of your merchandise. Yeah. You see bands play really big places and it's amazing how much money they don't make. Yeah. Or each guy in the band gets, you know, like, really? Yeah. Huh. And then you see, you know, someone, like a small comedian playing like a 150 seater for two nights, two sets a night, you know, the, the laughed whatever in the Midwest. And you're like, wow, wow, that's a pretty good weekend. Like cause he's just taking it home in his suitcase. Yeah. You can get by. You can get by. Yeah. And you can work, you can work everywhere. For a band, I think it's more, the venues are more, more limited. Places you go are more limited. You know, and I think that's interesting that you're, it was almost like a desperation to not have to work a job as a waiter that kept you just hustling. I just knew that the straight world, cause I'd been in it, I come from it, you know, minimum wage work and everything. And I knew I couldn't survive in it. Cause I, you know, you get, as a young adult, you start to figure out who you are. And I go, okay, I'm not an artist, but I'm an artist type. I'm nuts. You can't put me in a straight job. I can pass for normal just cause I can task it. I can totally do it. Like you can put me in a Ralph's, a Kroger's, a Starbucks. I will totally get in there and hit the work and clean it all and serve it up with a smile. But I'll be going crazy inside. I will be punching the wall. I think everybody in those places is going crazy inside. I don't know. But I can't sustain in that. And I haven't had to for many years. I've been lucky. I've been in the world of lunatics since 1981. Being a crazy person out with other crazy people. And when I look at a straight job, I'm like, man, I don't think at this point I could hack it. Not cause I'm spoiled, just because I've never had to tether my adult mind to that. I work seven days a week, but on Henry stuff. Yeah. It's a different thing. It's a different thing. Yeah, you enjoy that work. And it's way over 60 hours a week. I do two shifts usually, two eight to 10 hour shifts depending on the work load. Well I can't do four hours of sleep a night, but I time my sleep. I hit the stopwatch on the phone before I go to bed, just clock sleep patterns. I did about six point something hours of sleep last night. That's good. It's good. I feel great today. I was 38 and I got into good workout and all last night I did a lot of pull ups. I played 15 seven inch records and between flipping them over, I got a beam in my living room. It's a beam coming out of the ceiling that supports me. And I just run over there and just do a bunch of pull ups and then go change the record. So you want more music, you have to pay in pain. And you're doing all this by yourself, all alone. Yeah. But by bedtime you are hurting and ready to sleep. So I got good sleep last night. So you mix the workout in with your enjoyment of music. You just space it in between the songs. Last night was pulling. Tonight at the turntable I'll be listening to more records. I'll just do sets of push ups next to the turntable. That's actually a smart move because that's probably a good interval of rest. Get a good hard workout in and then you listen to a four minute song. Yeah, but I do it all night. And I'm not doing 50 reps sets. I'm doing like 15 to 25, but I'm doing them for quite a while. By the time I go to bed, it's Advil time. I'm like, ow, I'm too old for this. But I work on something every day on tour. I don't take vacations. I'm not trying to brag. I just can't handle not doing it, whatever the thing is. Yeah. Well, you found an interesting way to live life. I don't know anybody like you, but it's working for you. Yeah. I work on all levels and I can sustain. I pay my bills. I'm not bored and I get for the most part to call my own shots. You seem happy. Happy when I'm working. Yeah. Yeah. Happy with the tasks. Yeah. I value work. I'm an achievement junkie. Like if I'm depressed, I just pick something to do. Like finish a radio show, edit this thing, transcribe this chapter from a notebook. And after I'm done, I'm like, okay, that's the antidepressant was actually doing something, which is not the worst. It's not booze. It's not a pill. It's the treadmill. Or it's the, oh, that damn thing. I got to get it written. Well, shut up and write it. When I'm done, it's like an endorphin thing where I'm great for another day. There was an article written about happiness and that was one of the things that they said that one of the things that seems to sustain people's happiness or facilitate happiness is accomplishing tasks, like setting goals for yourself, accomplishing those goals and getting this sense of completion. You've actually done the work and you did it and you disciplined yourself and got through it and that this is one of the major keys to happiness for a lot of people. Works for me. Totally works for me. Me as well. I've tried everything but drugs because I've been battling with depression since I was a little kid. And I just knew it. I'm like, what is this? It's just awful. And, you know, later I found out it was depression and I don't want to do drugs. I just don't want my brain plus drugs. It's like someone else's idea. It terrifies me. So I had to figure out what do you do? And so that's where the gym you're working out really is a big help. Writing. But listening to music, that is like kind of my drug. You know, I just put the records on and like three songs in, you're like, oh, there's that feeling buoyancy neutral. It's like floating in the tank or when you're scuba diving, you get your air just right. You're floating. That's how I feel when I have the music on. I'm like, ah, this is as good as it gets. That's why I always have, you know, record. I'm always looking at new records, going to the record store. There's more happiness coming in.