The artistic life of Henry Rollins is entering yet another cycle. The punk rocker is returning to his spoken word performance schedule with a tour opening Jan. 7 in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. Rollins tells muziqnet.com he’s not surprised audiences have continued to pay to here him voice his ideas for more than two decades."What is surprising is that it gets bigger every year, and that every time we go out, the tickets sell out faster,” Rollins says. “What is intense for some guy with no real HBO exposure, no MTV exposure, no FM radio exposure, is that it seems to work.”

As far as Rollins the musician is concerned, the soon-to-be 42 year old says he’ll take a hiatus from his spoken word tour in the summer, at which time he hopes to take his band back on the road. He will then return for the final leg of his spoken word tour in the fall and early winter. In addition, the former Black Flag singer just finished filming a role in the anticipated blockbuster “Bad Boys 2,” which is due out next summer. All told, Rollins isn’t one to waste time between projects.

“I view all of this stuff like Man Ray the artist views things – ‘I am, therefore I art out,’” explains Rollins. “I am open to whatever offer comes in. Some acting? Yes, I’ll try that. Voiceovers? Sure. Talking tour? Great. Band stuff? Great. Talk show, TV? Can do, am interested. It’s not really like an investment thing as much as I think it is the job of an artist, especially these days with all of the media that are in existence. I think there is really something to be said about keeping yourself artistically a little off balance.”

Also on Rollins’ calendar is the spring release of his DVD/CD package “I Am Spazticus,” which features excerpts from nine spoken word shows filmed at Los Angeles’ Luna Park in 1999. He’s also releasing two double-disc spoken word albums – “Talk Is Cheap I & II.” The releases, which were recorded in Sydney in 2001, are only available at shows on his current tour but eventually will go on sale through his official Web site. Rollins is only charging $10 per double-disc release.

“In a way, I think, it is good that major labels have all charged this much money for their wares [because] it’s going to cave in and there will be one record company putting out CDs [without] names,” Rollins offers. “It will just say, ‘FM Music’ and it will sound like Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Jennifer Lopez put in a Cuisinart with the Korn guitar player, who will be out of a job, as the house guitar player, a la Motown, just to go ‘Ugh, ugh, ugh’ all over dance beats.”

“And the whole thing will be produced by the same guy,” he continues. “And there will be no jobs for the industry because the industry, through greed and only seeing the fiscal quarter rather than seeing the world of music, caved in under the weight of its own ambition and desire to be on top of the mountain. And thankfully, all of the independent labels will go ‘weee’ and music will once again flourish. So, I’m in a really good mood about what is going on out there because the state of music is great if you look in the right place.”

Here are Henry Rollins’ upcoming spoken word tour dates:

Jan. 7: San Juan Capistrano, Calif. (Coach House)
Jan. 8: San Francisco (Palace Of Fine Arts)
Jan. 10: Seattle (Moore Theatre)
Jan. 11: Vancouver (Vogue Theatre)
Jan. 12: Portland, Ore. (Roseland Theater)
Jan. 14: Salt Lake City (Kingsbury Hall)
Jan. 15: Denver (Paramount Theatre)
Jan. 17: St. Louis (The Pageant)
Jan. 18: Minneapolis (Historic Pantages Theatre)
Jan. 19: Lawrence, Kan. (Liberty Hall)
Jan. 22: Chicago (Vic Theatre)
Jan. 23: Indianapolis (Murat Egyptian Room)
Jan. 24: Cincinnati (Bogart’s)
Jan. 25: Columbus, Ohio (Newport Music Hall)
Jan. 26: Cleveland (Odeon Concert Club)
Jan. 28: Madison, Wis. (Barrymore Theatre)
Jan. 29: Milwaukee (Rave / Eagles Ballroom)
Jan. 30: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Michigan Theater)
Jan. 31: Rochester, N.Y. (Harro East)

With the best-selling album and soundtrack of the year, Eminem dominates U.S. year-end certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Billboard Bulletin reports. The rapper’s third album for Interscope, “The Eminem Show,” exceeded platinum shipments (1 million copies) in its first week and closed out the year at seven-times platinum. In addition, the Eminem-led soundtrack to “8 Mile,” also on Interscope, went triple platinum.St. Louis rapper Nelly had the second biggest album of the year with “Nellyville” (Fo’ Reel/Universal), which shipped more than 5 million. With her quadruple-platinum Arista debut, “Let Go,” Avril Lavigne had the highest-shipping debut of the year and highest-shipping album by a female artist.

Also scoring big were the Dixie Chicks, who received a diamond award for 10 million shipments of their sophomore set, “Fly” (Monument/Sony), just a few months before their August release, “Home” (Monument/Columbia), crossed the triple-platinum mark.

In an exceptionally successful year for rock legends, the Rolling Stones’ “Forty Licks” (ABKCO/Virgin) and Elvis Presley’s “ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits” (RCA) were both certified triple platinum, while Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” (Columbia) and Santana’s “Shaman” (Arista) went double platinum.

Meanwhile, in December certifications, Justin Timberlake proved his mettle as a solo artist, as “Justified” (Jive) reached double-platinum status. Also during the month, Elton John received his 35th gold and 25th platinum award for “Elton John’s Greatest Hits: 1970-2002″ (Island).