Al Jourgensen says it's time for another Ministry record

Al Jourgensen
Al Jourgensen

Ministry and Surgical Meth Machine mainman Al Jourgensen says that “it’s time” to record another Ministry album.

The vocalist insisted their 2012 album Relapse would be their last after his best friend and longtime guitarist Mikey Scaccia died of heart failure on stage with his other band Rigor Mortis in December that year.

But Jourgensen admits that he was “really angry” after being hounded by the media about Ministry plans and just needed time to grieve.

He tells CleveScene: “When I was asked, it was after Mikey passed and the entire media immediately starts asking me what is going to happen to Ministry. He wasn’t even buried yet.

“It was sick. I was bombarded and email boxes were overloaded with ‘what are you going to do now?’ It was kind of creepy.

“I was really pissed and really angry. I said, ‘Fuck Ministry and fuck you for asking.’ They want to comment on Ministry when my best friend had died. I wanted to have time to mourn before people start asking me about touring dates.”

Jourgensen continues: “It’s been more than two years now, and I got more ideas and I have done albums with Mikey and have done them without him. I have a bunch of songs written in my head. It’s time to get another record out.”

Ministry will tour the UK with DevilDriver next month.

Ministry and DevilDriver 2016 UK tour

Aug 16: Cardiff Tramshed
Aug 17: Glasgow O2 ABC
Aug 18: Birmingham O2 Institute
Aug 19: Manchester O2 Ritz
Aug 20: London O2 Forum Kentish Town

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Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.