Al Jourgensen, Sin Quirin, and Tommy Victor of Ministry were all in Hollywood last thursday for a signing with the crew from the Zach Passero horror movie Wicked Lake. Johnny scored us an in-person interview, and we hired the Enjoy Human video production team to tag along and shoot it.
Al was somewhat hammered, so all we really had to do was hit record and try and follow the Alien as he whipped his dick out in Virgin Megastore, ranted about being drunk dialed by Neil Young, engaging in sodomy with Jim Morrisson’s ghost, and kung fu-ing George Bush. Maybe that sounds wild, but he wasn’t nearly as unhinged as most of the maniacs that roam the treacherous streets of Hollywood at night, and not once did he try and sell us a star map. So in context, it was a rather pleasant evening.
Antiquiet: We’re here for the Wicked Lake [DVD] signing and…
Al Jourgensen: We are?
Antiquiet: Yes we are… How’d you get involved with it?
Al Jourgensen: (pointing to Zach Passero) That guy. That’s the director. That’s a friend of mine from El Paso. This is his first feature film, and we had a gas doing it. (To Zach:) How many bottles of wine did we drink while we were doing the soundtrack?
Zach Passero: Aw man… Easily like twenty? At least? If not more…
Al Jourgensen: Basically it was like a nepotism thing, where he hired a friend that wasn’t qualified (pointing to himself) to do a soundtrack… (laughing)
Antiquiet: Now you’ve done soundtracks for a few movies…
Al Jourgensen: A.I., Robocop… Stuff like that…
Antiquiet: And The Matrix, right?
Al Jourgensen: Nah, they just put our stuff on there, I didn’t really do anything… But I do know kung fu!
Antiquiet: So do you plan on getting into more [scoring]?
Al Jourgensen: Yeah, of course… (smirking) If they pay me enough, I’ll do it.
Antiquiet: (laughing) very nice.
Al Jourgensen: If they pay me, I will come.
In 1994, Ministry played an acoustic set at Neil Young’s Annual Bridge School Benefit concert. I had known of Ministry as the industrial metal band they usually are, so I was absolutely shocked to hear their version of The Grateful Dead’s Friend Of The Devil on 1997’s Bridge School Concerts, Vol. 1 CD. This was a song my Dad (who incidentally bears an uncanny resemblance to Neil Young) used to play when I was a little kid, and I’ve been absolutely in love with Ministry’s rendition ever since. I had always wondered how it came about, and so I snuck the following question into Tedward’s brain:
Antiquiet: On [Antiquiet], Friend Of The Devil was on not only one, but two of our ‘best covers’ mixtapes. How’d you guys get involved with that?
Al Jourgensen: Neil called me, Neil Young, and uh… he… (laughs)
Sin Quirin: Wasted.
Al Jourgensen: (laughing) Yeah.
Sin Quirin: He was wasted. So he drunk dialed Al…
Al Jourgensen: Yeah, he drunk dialed me (laughing) …He saw us in New York, and said ‘that’s the loudest show I’ve ever seen in my life. You guys are insane… I want you to do an acoustic show (laughing)
So [we're] like, well, if Neil Young wants it, uh, well, I guess we have to do it, because it’s… Neil Young! So we did like this unplugged Ministry…
Usually [when we're 'unplugged'] it’s just like things not being plugged in, amplifiers- [so] we don’t make any noise (laughs), but this unplugged, we did for Neil, and it came out good.
Neil’s a great guy. He’s awesome. The cause that he [supports with] his Bridge Benefits is awesome. His wife Peggy is great (to camera) Hey Peggy! Shout out to Peggy…
And then plus… We already had… He heard we had a country band too, called Buck Satan And The 666 Shooters. So he knew that we were kind of into that unplugged thing [with] our side job.
Antiquiet: We hear you’ve also done Roadhouse Blues. How’d that come about?
Al Jourgensen: Well, Jim Morrison’s ghost came and slept with me in bed. We had mad passionate homosexual sex.
Antiquiet: That’s the same way I came about it…
Al Jourgensen: And we fell in love, me and his ghost, and we decided to do Roadhouse Blues.
Antiquiet: Nice.
Al Jourgensen: No. It’s because (over Tommy Victor’s lauging) I can play harmonica, and the band was rockin’ and the thing I never got about that song was like, Morrison’s lyrics were always about like complete anarchy on that song, just like… Fuck it, I’m gonna run into a building at full speed in my car, I’m gonna drive drunk blah blah blah and then [the song is] this slow like brawmp ba-brawmp ba-brawmp ba brawnana… And I figured, that doesn’t do the lyrics justice- Jim is really like, Hey man, I wanna die crashing into a fence! And the music was all like regular blues. So I just figured I’d speed it up a bit, and then we got something that seemed to like, be [the] yin and yang…
If you’re following along with the video, right here we cut to a scene that Al caused right after the interview. We’re not exactly sure what provoked it (besides alcohol), but while posing for a picture with a fan, Al whipped his dick out in the middle of the crowded store. To prove we do actually maintain a lone shred of decency here at Antiquiet, we cropped it out. But I assure you, everyone got some Alien cock, and the brave Enjoy Human crew had a hi-def camera rolling. That’s one for the archives, eh?
Antiquiet: You’ve dedicated a lot of your music to our dear leader George W. Bush…
Al Jourgensen: He’s not my dear leader…
Antiquiet: So I was just wondering, if you were to sit at a bar with him, what is the one thing that you would say?
Al Jourgensen: (momentarily incredulous, everyone’s laughing) No, it’d be like, hands behind your back.
…I wouldn’t say a word to him… I know this is going to get secret service… (dropping to a ninja stance) all alarmed. But I know kung fu. And if I sat next to Georgie, I would use my kung fu powers. I wouldn’t say a word. I would kung fu him.
Antiquiet: You’d let your fists do the talking.
Al Jourgensen: I would let my fists do the talking.
Wicked Lake is now available on DVD. The movie was scored by Al Jourgensen, and the film soundtrack is headed for a November 24th release through 13th Planet, featuring music by Ministry, Prong, Meshuggah, and the Revolting Cocks.
About Skwerl
Kevin "Skwerl" Cogill was taught his first computer programming language by his Mother's marijuana dealer at age ten. His first job involved hustling TicketMaster lines on behalf of a New Jersey concert ticket broker at age fourteen, followed by a job in graphic design shortly after graduating high school and trade school simultaneously in 1998. He built his first website in 1996 or so, and continues to do things the way they should be done, rather than the way everyone else does. He's a bit of an asshole, but he's fiercely loyal to his friends, and to fellow fans of good music.Born and raised in Philadelphia, Skwerl now resides in Los Angeles.
September 29th, 2008 at 11:26 AM
wow, never thought i’d see the video (friend of the devil) i upped on youtube somewhere else!!
September 30th, 2008 at 12:09 AM
Nothing magical about Ministry or this movie. Both are pure crap. Al is pathetic and not a true artist. Has to resort to juvenile antics. This world is too good for Al.
September 30th, 2008 at 2:30 PM
I had sooo much fun at this event. Everyone was fabulous and the fans who showed up gave Al a lot of cool presents. I liked the painting a fan did of Al the best! That is pure dedication.
To the GrossOut comment, you sound like a person who takes life too seriously. You gotta have fun! Al is forever young at heart and there is definitely no blame nor shame in that!
Thanks a million to Sin! And, of course Angie Jourgensen. This by far, is one of the best moments and memories I’ll forever cherish.
October 4th, 2008 at 3:15 PM
Looks like good fun was had by all who attended. I love Al’s stories. Note no one even tried to talk whilst he was on one. Which planet is Tommy on?
October 4th, 2008 at 10:00 PM
omg skwerl, I love the little profile about you, funny!
October 8th, 2008 at 9:49 AM
lol reminds of me The Dick Song from The Last Sucker. “Run Run Run, Al’s got a gun!”
October 18th, 2008 at 11:23 PM
Happy to see the Alien happy. Also looking forward to a movie that embodies the true spirit of womanhood:-)