THE CHANGING MAN
Al Jourgensen clearly enjoys his outlier status. “Ministry is this floating kind of quirky metal band,” he says of the industrialrock avatars he founded 40 years ago. “We’re not accepted by the church burners, we’re not accepted by the pop-metallers, we’re not accepted by the dance club crowd any more. We’ve betrayed all of our fucking fans and I still love it!”
Such devotion to the cause is admirable. Jourgensen has negotiated more than his share of crests and valleys over the decades. At their early 90s peak, Ministry were shifting enough product to rival American labelmates Prince, Madonna and Depeche Mode. But commercial success was tainted by drug and alcohol abuse on an appalling scale. Jourgensen was a heroin addict for nearly 20 years, unable to function without it. It nearly killed him too, as he tore through life with the same kind of apocalyptic abandon as a grade-A Ministry song, man and music united in their refusal to compromise.
Reluctantly adopting the role of Ministry frontman was just about the only concession he was willing to make. “It’s the worst fucking job on Earth,” he maintains. “I always wanted to be Jimmy Page, not Robert Plant. I just wanted to be in the studio, writing stuff, like the man behind the curtain in . It’s just a ridiculous paradigm to be considered a lead singer. I’m in complete
