A Former Navy SEAL Credits Punk Rock for Learning to Say No

Asked where he became himself, former Navy SEAL Jocko Willink did not point to basic training or combat. He pointed to the music he listened to as a teenager.

Hardcore punk, he said, set a baseline in his head for “being okay with being outside, being okay with saying no, being okay with being a rebel.”

By hardcore, Willink means the fast, confrontational music he grew up on and the do-it-yourself scene around it. The attitude, as he put it, was “we can just do this ourselves,” plus sticking by friends and standing up for what you believe, even if it meant getting in fights. He calls that music the soundtrack to his life.

Willink said he was “a kid living in the woods in Connecticut” when he first heard it. The Beatles, the Grateful Dead, and the Rolling Stones were fine, he said, but when he heard the Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front, and the Bad Brains, he felt the music was already part of him. He paid close attention to what Minor Threat was singing about and found himself agreeing with them.

That comfort with not going along, he said, became useful in uniform. When a leader told him to do something that did not seem like a good idea, he had learned to voice doubts respectfully.

His version was plain: “Hey, boss, I’m not sure this is a good idea.” Or, “There might be a better way to get this done. What do you think of this?” Or simply, “Can I ask you a question about that?” It was not about being a jerk, he said.

He traces the habit back to his record player. Having Black Flag’s “My War,” side two, on repeat for “a year and a half straight,” Willink said, “that’s going to leave a mark, man.”