Al Jourgensen, leader of groundbreaking industrial metal band Ministry, says their new album is their last – and claims that he never wanted to be a rock star in the first place.
Jourgensen formed Ministry in Chicago in 1981, and near the end of that decade delivered two genre-defining classics with the 1988 album The Land Of Rape And Honey and 1989 follow-up The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste.
In that era, Minstry ranked alongside Nine Inch Nails as innovators and pioneers of industrial music.
Their biggest selling album was Psalm 69: The Way To Succeed And The Way To Suck Eggs, which was released in 1992 and was nominated for a Grammy.
New album Hate To Go (Take Out Or Delivery) is released on 30 October, and Jourgensen reveals in an interview with Hit Parader that this is the swan song for Ministry.
“I figure it’s time,” he says. “We’ve taken our genre and this band as far as we can go.”
Referring to Hate To Go (Take Out Or Delivery), Jourgensen states: “I’m really happy with this album and I think it’s a culmination of 40 years of the same elements. But I’m not enthused about continuing to keep doing this kind of music or music in general.”
With remarkable candour, he explains: “I just think that Ministry has run its course. And I’m glad it was here when it was here. But I have no regrets looking back on it and everything.
“Plus, I’m 68 years old. It’s like, God bless The Rolling Stones. They’re in their 80s. They do a new record and this and that. But I just have other interests.
“Basically, I never wanted to do this anyways. It’s pretty well documented that I just wanted to be a history professor for high school and college. And then I had these demo tapes that started selling and all of a sudden I’m in a band.
“I auditioned like 10 or 12 singers. I did not want to be singer. If anything, I always wanted to be Jimmy Page, not Robert Plant. And here I was, it just kept dragging me in. I kind of felt like Michael Corleone in Godfather III. Every time I try and get out, they pull me back in.
“So, it just kept getting to be more and more of this behemoth. I didn’t really set out to do this path to start with, but I guess I was able to do it well enough to sustain a 45-year career – but there comes a time.”
Al Jourgensen will take his final bows with Ministry on a world tour kicking off in April 2027.
