With two concurrent Black Flag reunions taking place in the summer of 2013 (Greg Ginn and Ron Reyes’s “official” Black Flag, and the Keith Morris-fronted FLAG), many have wondered whether the band’s longest-tenured and most-recorded vocalist, Henry Rollins, would be taking part in any tours, Black Flag-related or not.

Without specifically referring to either Black Flag incarnations by name, Rollins has addressed his take on reunions and musical performance in general in his latest LA Weekly column:

I got asked by someone if I was going to go on tour this summer and play what at this point is old music. I told the person that I wasn’t because that currently, my future is getting in the way of my past.

I tell you this because in the summer months, you can count on bands that have been gone for years who will reassemble and go onto stages all over the world playing “vintage music.” Perhaps they are on a Proustian mission to recapture that which has been lost. I read the interviews where the musicians claim that now they can really play this music. I don’t doubt them, but therein lies the problem. Musicians should not play Music. Music should play musicians…

This is why I stopped touring with a band. I put up my fists and there was no longer anything there. It was heartbreaking, but it was clear. Music had moved on. Such was my reverence for its limitless power, I faced this truth and moved on in search of new battles… To each their own. This is how I am running my show.

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