By chance I came across a Henry Rollins page with a mention of Morrissey in it. There was a story posted about this guy's adventure to see Mr. Rollins in a spoken word performance in Manchester a few years ago... What I was wondering is - did this in fact happen?

Excerpt from the story:

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So I sat my ass down and cooled it for another hour 'til the show went on. It was great. He talked about his first time in Manchester. He talked about a talking show put on in L.A.... the same one that got taped for the video Talking from the Box. This is kind of funny... He talked about preparing for the show since he produced it as well as performed. At one point, somebody came up to him and asked if he could get a backstage pass for Morrissey. Rollins thought he was joking and told him to fuck off... a little while later he looked out into the audience and saw: it really was Morrissey. The Mo-man himself!

Later, during the show, he did this little bit where he talked about the riots in L.A. He talked about how he hit the streets to go check out the carnage. There was a record store (a chain store) that was being protected...rather pathetically, actually...by two unarmed security guards. "All right, you cement. Stay there!" So anyway, the looters started to close in on the record store. The rent-a-cops, in a wild mood of creativity, came over to the group of on-lookers (of which Rollins was a part) and put forth the proposition that they were going to deputize the group in order to 'protect the neighborhood.' Rollins, being "more cynical than your average stadium full of people" came up with the following argument against it:

"Ok...so what you're saying is you want me to take a rock in the face for Paula Abdul. Now, ok, let me get this right. I'm supposed to take a 2"x4" across my chest for Bono..."

Now I might interject this last bit of fun. Earlier on in the show, Rollins had to explain to the British audience the cultural differences of digital insults on either side of the Atlantic. The United States has its all-too-familiar method: clenching the fist with the exception of the single longest digit in the center of the hand - the eternal middle finger. In Britain, this is generally understood, but it's far more characteristic to use both the middle and index fingers (a reversal of the peace sign...ironically, all the hippies and peaceniks were/are just flipping themselves off.)

"...I'm supposed to stand in front of a huge piece of plate glass and try and defend it from five gnarly youths who want to go right over my head...for Morrissey."

It was at this point where Rollins flipped off Morrissey where he sat in the audience, all the while screaming "FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" The audience, froze, turned to look straight at the Mo-Man, laughed, clammed up, and turned quickly back to face the stage. This occurred during the first ten or fifteen minutes of his talk. He had to sit and live with this insult for another hour or so. Ouch..

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