Hold onto your piercings; US industrial metal demigods Ministry are in Australia launching their global From Beer To EternaTour.It’s been nearly two decades since Al Jourgensen and his henchmen last graced our shores, and four years ago it looked certain that they’d never return. Following a few scrapped Australian tours, Ministry announced 2007’s The Last Sucker to be their final album and carried out a farewell tour the following year.
However, three years later Jourgensen backtracked on that decision and has since spearheaded two more Ministry LPs. The forthcoming tour takes its name from the band’s most recent effort – album number 13,From Beer To Eternity. But it’s far from a rosy state of affairs. See, this tour has again been billed the band’s last, and Jourgensen isn’t likely to renege on his promise again.
“I’ve said that before, but that was for health reasons,” he says. “I couldn’t just keep going onstage, losing half my blood the day before from ulcers, so I was like, ‘Enough of this.’ But I’m healthy now. The problem is now that on December 22nd 2012, Mike Scaccia died. He died two days after finishing his parts on From Beer To Eternity.”
Scaccia was instated as Ministry’s guitarist way back in 1989. He came and went a few times, but aside from Jourgensen, he was the band’s longest-serving member, contributing to six records. From Beer To Eternity wasn’t quite finished when Scaccia passed away, but Jourgensen knuckled down in the studio to complete the record. The band’s Soundwave shows are actually the first Ministry gigs since Scaccia’s death, and the whole tour is indebted to his memory.
“We’re doing the whole album in his honour,” Jourgensen says. “I know he wanted us to tour so badly, especially in Australia, so we’re doing it for him. It’s not going to be a big deal, we’re not going to mention his name, we’re not going to be trying to cash in on it or anything. This is a final fitting tribute to Ministry, to an end of an era.
“Two days before Mikey died,” he continues, “we’d just got done with his tracks on From Beer To Eternity and he was grinning ear-to-ear. He just said, ‘Man, we’ve got to tour on this. This is the shit.’ Then he goes off to Dallas and he’s dead two days later. It freaked me out. He was like my little brother. I just know that this is what he would’ve wanted.”
Although the band has undergone innumerable lineup alterations, Ministry’s recording career spans three decades, including 13 studio albums and several live recordings. It’s a staggering back catalogue, rooted in Jourgensen’s embittered eccentricity. There’s been the odd misfire along the way, but by and large each record has augmented the band’s heavily industrial sound and political urgency. Right to the end, however, Jourgensen says there’s been no overarching aesthetic agenda.
“We just go in there drunk like fools and start jamming and see what comes out. There’s really no pre-planning. I don’t worry about, ‘What do we do next?’ Next comes to me. I don’t come to next.”
Over the years, Ministry have also maintained consistent popularity. So perhaps Jourgensen had a commercial plan in mind, then? Nuh-uh. “Since that very first Arista record in 1983 [With Sympathy], I’ve stopped caring; I’ve stopped worrying about it,” he says. “In the immortal words of my ex-guitar player Tommy Victor, ‘Just play your fuckin’ part.’ Especially with downloads and everything else; I don’t care if it goes gold or platinum or this or that. We just like to go and have fun in the studio and make music. And that’s what we do.”
Throughout his career, Jourgensen has been involved with a number of bands and projects outside of Ministry, such as the revolving-door supergroup Revolting Cocks, Lard (with Jello Biafra) and the country rock detour Buck Satan and The 666 Shooters. While Ministry operations will soon shut down for good, he’s not planning to disappear completely.
“I’m currently doing a Lard album with Jello Biafra,” he says, “which we haven’t done in like 20-something years. Jello stayed a week in my house here in California and we’re five songs into the album. So expect a Lard tour in the future, expect other things, expect surprising things from me, but just don’t expect Ministry or any Ministry tours.
“I’m not stopping music or retiring,” he adds. “It’s just that Ministry ran its course. Mikey’s dead, and let’s not forget Paul Raven who was with us for six years, our bass player, who also died. All my people keep dying on me, so I think it’s probably time to stop. I feel like fucking Spinal Tap, man. It’s like they start dying after they go on tour with me.”
With the exception of Scaccia, the current Ministry lineup is the same one that conducted 2008’s farewell tour, featuring John Bechdel on keys, Sin Quirin on guitar, Aaron Rossi on drums and Tony Campos playing bass. All Spinal Tap superstitions aside, Jourgensen warns they’re armed and dangerous.
“I promise we won’t disappoint this time,” he says. “Last time I had health problems. This time I don’t. I have a great band, we have a great record, we’re just ready to kick Australia’s ass. And I know Australia will kick our ass.”
Ministry appearat Soundwave XV,Saturday February 28 and Sunday March 1 at Sydney Olympic Park, and also
alongside Godflesh at the Metro Theatre on Friday February 27.From Beer To Eternity is out now through 13th Planet.
