Henry Rollins apologises for attacking Robin Williams in a newspaper column

Henry Rollins, who criticized Robin Williams’ suicide last week to LA Weekly, recently issued a statement of apology on his website noting he caused a lot of disappointment and resentment to anyone who read it.

“The article I wrote in the LA Weekly about suicide caused a lot of hurt,” says Rollins. “This is perhaps one of the bigger understatements of all time.”

The former punk rock singer of Black Flag feels disgusted that he hurt anyone with his words and it wasn’t his intent to do so.

“I have had a life of depression,” says Rollins. “Some days are excruciating. Knowing what I know and having been through what I have, I should have known better but I obviously did not. I get so mad when I hear that someone has died this way. Not mad at them, mad at whatever got them there and that no one magically appeared to somehow save them.”

In the original column, which was published  last Thursday, Rollins pounded on Williams for shaking up his three children by taking his life. While he praised the actor’s talents and his work on USO tours, Rollins said that he regards people who have committed suicide ‘with a bit of disdain.’

“I know they existed, yet they have nullified their existence because they willfully removed themselves from life,” he wrote. “They were real but now they are not.”

Rollins, 53, says his apology shouldn’t call for a full forgiveness from anybody.

“I am not asking for a break from the caning, take me to the woodshed as much as you see fit,” says Rollins. “If what I said has caused you to be done with me, I get it.”

Rollins states that it wasn’t his interest to hurt anyone but he knew he did.

“I am deeply sorry,” says Rollins. “Down to my marrow. I can’t think that means anything to you, but I am. Completely sorry.

Rollins has focused on spoken word tours and presenting radio shows since the 2000s,  rather than music. His last musical album was with the Rollins Band in 2001 called ‘A Nicer Shade of Red‘.
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