Growling out seminal punk songs in just a pair of black shorts may have been the best preparation for Henry Rollins’ later endeavors.

The former Black Flag front man, known in that context for his unmitigated, muscle-bound intensity, cites his time with the group as a foundation for all of his activities heretofore.

“You learned to work very, very hard for things,” said Rollins, who joined Black Flag in 1981 at the age of 20.

“It was good training for all the things I do now. It was perhaps the most formative period in my life. I still work hard and don’t take anything for granted.”

“Black Flag were fricking like, oh my God, just Vikings in the way they toured relentlessly,” said Gordon Lamb, music columnist for Flagpole and music blogger at 24hourpartypooper.com. “So I can definitely see a work ethic coming from that.”

All those things Rollins does seem innumerable.

“My God, he was the first hero I ever had that also expanded into other mediums beside music,” Lamb said. “He wrote poetry and published his own books of poetry and started his own publishing company.”

Further, Rollins has acted in movies, put out albums with The Rollins Band, and hosted television shows and a radio show, in addition to the spoken word for which he is now known.

Of a lifetime of multimedia artistry, which activity has Rollins found the most stimulating?

“The music,” he said.

Rollins brings the stories and the intensity to the 40 Watt Club on Saturday with “Provoked,” an event devoted to his spoken word.

40 Watt talent buyer Velena Vego said she and owner Barrie Buck have known Rollins since the mid-1980s through Athens band R.E.M. and a close friend of Vego’s, Ian MacKaye of Fugazi, a band contemporary with Black Flag.

“He’s got that presence about him – he’s a very smart man,” she said. “I just admire that he’s growing into his name instead of just being Black Flag or The Rollins Band. It’s grown beyond that now.”

Rollins’ state of existence itself fuels his art.

“I am therefor (sic) I talk about the things that are important to me,” he said. “A lot of it finds its way to the stage, so it’s an all the time thing. I tell stories about where I’ve been and what I saw there. That’s what’s happening on this tour. Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, these places I was last year, all of them were very interesting trips.”

Lamb saw Rollins perform his spoken word for the first time at the Tate Center in 1990.

“He has so much material its not even funny – he could probably speak for six days straight.”