Sep 2, 2008 • 1 min read

Henry Rollins reveals Charles Manson penpal

Henry Rollins has revealed that he exchanged letters with Charles Manson in 1984, after Manson wrote to him from prison having seen him on MTV.

We all had a weird pen pal when we were younger, but Henry Rollins can now be crowned the winner in that particular competition. He has revealed that he exchanged letters with Charles Manson, after he wrote the then Black Flag frontman a letter from prison.

Rollins said: "He wrote me a letter out of the blue once and he said, 'I saw you on MTV and I thought you were pretty cool'. So we corresponded a few times in 1984; I'd just tell him about what we were doing with our new record and he'd send back semi-lucid responses. He made references to the Beach Boys stealing his ideas, which sounded like sour grapes, and told me to tell everybody else to take care of wildlife. That must have been the old hippy in him talking. At the time, I was very young and having him write me letters made me feel very intense and heavy. I'd always know I'd have a letter in my PO Box from him because the woman behind the counter at the post office would give you this awful look. His letters would always have swastikas on them so they were easy to spot".

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