Henry Rollins was talking the talk in Canberra

Henry Rollins is hardcore punk music royalty – and he’s a big softie.

He’s long left behind the band that first brought him the brightest spotlight, Black Flag, and he no longer tours with his subsequent outfit, the Rollins Band.

Today, he is exclusively a spoken word artist and last Tuesday (20 June) he graced the stage at Canberra’s Llewellyn Hall on the ANU campus to explain that old folks like him need to stop telling the younger generations what to do.

“The young will make the world a better place because we, the old, have blown it,” he told an audience ranging from teenagers to 80-somethings.

“But I want to do my bit to give the century a chance of ending in a better way than it began.”

The 62-year-old stands alone on stage, microphone in his left hand with its cord wrapped into his fist.

A tight-fitting black t-shirt reveals a taut stomach and exposes heavily tattooed biceps. Big biceps. This guy is fit.

His stance looks like he’s ready to punch anyone who comes near him, and he has a contagious energy as he talks at lightning speed for more than two hours without once sitting down or sipping a mouthful of water.

He didn’t even wipe away any sweat. And I’m not even sure he stopped to take a breath.

Yet, despite the angry appearance, his message is one of “Hey, let’s try treating each other better than we have been” and he can’t help but smile, laugh and squeal all through his lecture.

This is like a TED Talk on speed.

Rollins very much lives by what music – particularly punk music – has taught him.

He believes it is his credo for life.

Music literally saved him, and helped him survive what he describes as a pretty awful upbringing.

But there were scant Back Flag anecdotes to be shared.

He’s done that many times before (check out the YouTube video of him recounting during his last speaking tour of the day he met David Bowie. It’s gold).

Instead, we heard about his bizarre reaction to the passing of his mother, along with the hilarious account of what to do with her ashes, and some near-death experiences of his own.

He apologised for the state of American politics, and concluded that Australia’s must be better.

He talked of his adventurous nomadic life where he has deliberately sought out the four corners of the earth to get the most out of life “before it’s all over and I’m literally nothing”.

And he described how he sleeps fully dressed – shoes and all – because where he lives in the US, you have to always be prepared for a home invasion.

A great deal of the night was taken up with the minutiae of an account of a stalker from Finland who broke into his home and began destroying his things.

He made it sound quite humorous, but the danger of the episode and the fear it struck in him was very evident.

Yet throughout, Rollins endeavoured to treat this guy with dignity – particularly when learning of the kid’s mental illness.

He didn’t push for the harshest penalties to be applied and he helped the guy towards something better.

I left the show really liking Rollins – and I have seen him in performance before with similar results.

I just wish he had been a little gentler with the sound guy at the start of the show when demanding more volume in his foldback monitors.