Chords for Henry Rollins on Captain Beefheart and Dennis Hopper

And years later, after the band [G] broke up, I found myself [Gm] living by the beach [G] in Venice,
Venice Beach, which is near Los Angeles International Airport.
And I had a small house I was renting, and in the back of the house was where I lived,
and I rented the front of it to a friend of mine named Joe Cole.
And Joe and I were living by the beach, it was a good time, and at one point we read
in the LA Weekly, which is the local paper there, it's a free paper with all the gig
listings, that Captain Beefheart, the great musician, Captain Beefheart, whose albums
I think you should investigate with a great deal of interest.
But Captain Beefheart, who's also a painter, he was having an opening [Db] of his watercolors
at a local gallery in Santa Monica, the next [G] beach over from us, for free, and you [B] can go.
And we had no money, and I had a lot of Captain Beefheart [G] records, because I'm one of those
guys who's one of his biggest fans, or at least one of his many, many big fans.
And I said, you want to go see this thing?
He's like, yeah!
And we figured we're going to be the only ones at this thing.
It'll be us, [B] Captain Beefheart, and the guy with the key to the gallery, because no one
is as cool [G] as we are.
We get there, the place is completely [Eb] packed.
So we walk in thinking, we're going to meet Captain Beefheart, which of course we did not.
And at this time, Captain Beefheart is very, very frail.
He's kind of getting up in [G] age, and he's not doing all that well.
He's in a wheelchair, and someone from the gallery is pushing him up to his different
watercolors on the wall.
And he points at one, and he gets wheeled up, and he leans back in the chair and [A] starts
putting some kind of weird hex [Db] on the wall.
_ [G] _
_ What's he doing?
It's fascinating.
And so we walk behind the wheelchair as he took this weird [Eb] lap around the gallery, hexing his paintings.
And we were kind of like his [B] back detail.
Like, we got [G] this.
You're like, I'm secure.
That's right.
He looked like an animal.
It's just totally ripped close.
And we just [Eb] kind of followed in his wake for quite a while.
It was really fun.
And then he was wheeled away, and [G] I never saw him again.
He died a little while ago.
And so that was interesting.
And we get our fill.
We walk around this gallery for quite a while, and we look at all the paintings, which were
incredibly beautiful, extremely expensive, so it's not like we're buying anything.
So we looked at all this stuff for quite a while, and then we leave.
And Joe and I are standing outside of the [Db] gallery watching the sunset.
It's one of those magnificent Southern [G] California evenings.
If you've ever been to Southern California when the sun is just right, it is about as
good as it gets.
And you can smell the ocean [Eb] because we're in Santa Monica.
And Joe is to my right.
I'm standing [G] here.
And to my left is an amazing Irish woman who taught me everything I know about radio.
She passed away years ago, and I miss her to this day.
Her name is Deirdre [Eb] O'Donoghue, and she had a great show on a station called KCRW.
And I would go in the 80s with [Ab] her to her show and just [G] kind of watch her do radio and
watch how she would mix up the [Eb] songs and keep the listeners.
And now I have a [N] job at that station.
And now I sit where she used to sit, where she taught me all those years ago.
And it's a nice thing to kind of be [G] in that spot.
Anyway, Deirdre's standing next to me.
Standing next to Deirdre is some, apparently he's an artist, a cartoonist.
[Cm] That's not a put-down.
Apparently [N] he's a graphic artist.
His name is Matt Groening, and he has a show.
It's called The Simpsons.
I'm told it's delightful.
Anyway, Matt Groening is standing there, and at his feet is his little baby daughter.
Beautiful little girl [G] is playing at [C] his feet.
And we're just kind of standing there talking about [G] how great Captain Beefheart art was.
And at that [C] moment, Dennis Hopper [N] walks out of the art gallery.
Whoa, Dennis Hopper!
And actually, he lives like [C] five blocks from that gallery.
He used to live in Venice.
[N] And so I'm like, wow, it's Dennis Hopper.
He's walking towards this beautiful Porsche Turbo, as I remember.
And Joe Cole, who is very laconic, he's not a man of many words or facial expressions.
He's like, go for some spoken word, which means make an ass of yourself and create some havoc.
And he wants me to basically mess with Dennis Hopper, and I really don't want to.
I mean, everything's going so well.
The sun is setting.
We're hanging out with nice people.
And Joe wants me to get all uncivilized.
But it's a dare.
And when you're young and stupid, you're like, OK.
And so I'm like, [Db] uh, I'm trying to get out of it.
[F] What do you mean?
He's like, you know, do your asshole [Db] thing.
Got me pegged.
[G] And so it was a time where Blue Velvet, the film, had just scorched American art houses and our [Gm] psyches.
You remember this film, David Lynch [G] film.
And you remember the [E] character of Frank Booth [G] that Dennis Hopper played.
It is the stuff of nightmares.
If you've not seen this film, I recommend it.
Dennis [Db] Hopper is [G] convincingly terrifying.
I mean, it's just an awful character he plays.
I had to [E] think fast.
Joe wants me to [Eb] go for some spoken word.
Dennis Hopper is walking [Gm] away.
And so I figured that Dennis Hopper has never, [G] ever had anyone [Db] recreate or reenact [Bb] any scene [B] from Blue Velvet while [C] he's checking into a hotel,
[Db]
cramped into the back of an airplane, or stuck in a long elevator [Gm] ride.
I'm sure no one's ever come to him and said, OK, [F] OK, OK, check this out, check this out.
So I figured we need to do it now.
And there's a scene in the [D] film where his character grows very angry at [B] Tom McLaughlin's character.
And he basically issues a death threat.
And I figured that is the [N] scene.
And so I'm warning you in advance this next moment [Eb] contains a bit of profanity.
And so I yelled with everything [C] I had in me at [B] Dennis Hopper's back.
And he's striding towards his car.
Hey, fucker!
I'm going to send you a love letter, fucker!
[Eb] Straight from the bottom of my [G] heart, fucker!
Dennis Hopper [G] drops like he's been cocked.
[F] He convulses like he's been tased.
He turned around to see me.
And I'm still in [C] the moment, as they say.
[Eb] Leaning into it, [N] neck muscles wide like a cobra, that vein pulsating madly in a diagonal line [E] across my forehead,
eyes bugging out, mouth open, already dried [G] white flecks of spit in the corners of my mouth.
_ He saw me [C] and let out a, he went, [G] ah!
And ran.
He [Bb] broke into a run.
[N] Jumped into his car like Batman or Steve McQueen.
And _ poured out of