Before there was Nine Inch Nails or Tool, there was Al Jourgensen’s band Ministry, which for more than 30 years has helped to shape the look and sound of industrial music and heavy metal.
Jourgensen has helmed Ministry through every last rock cliché – his two decades of hard drug and alcohol abuse, numerous lineup changes, breakups and reunions, illness and accidents.
But his influence on heavy metal and its attitude is vast. Ministry has sold millions of albums as Jourgensen has racked up six Grammy nominations.
According to Jourgensen, there are two things left to accomplish before the book on Ministry is closed forever. The first is the release of his new memoir Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen, which his published by Da Capo, and the other is the band’s final album, From Beer to Eternity, due later this year. Jourgensen says this is the band’s last album following the death of guitarist Mike Scaccia last December.
Jourgensen works as a producer at his home base and studio in El Paso, which is where we reached him.
