Al Jourgensen Opens up About Ministry’s Final Album + Tour

On Wednesday (Nov. 11), the legendary Al Jourgensen joined Loudwire Nights to look back on the legacy of Ministry and opened up about their final studio album, Hate to Go – Take Out or Delivery.

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

“I just think that these songs are the perfect summation of everything we’ve done, wrapped up into one,” Jourgensen shared with Loudwire Nights‘ Chuck Armstrong about the new album.

“It’s really almost like a Ministry greatest hits, without them being hits yet. If it sounds like Ministry, smells like Ministry, looks like Ministry, quacks like Ministry — it must be a duck.”

For Jourgensen, there was no back and forth as to whether or not Hate to Go should be Ministry’s final album. In fact, he truly thought 2024’s Hopiumforthemasses would be the last one for the band.

“That’s what I thought, [but] the band said, ‘No, we’ve got one more kick left in this mule. Put on your big boy pants, Grandpa, and let’s do this.'”

Because he was already resigned to the idea that Hopiumforthemasses was it for Ministry, he felt no pressure with Hate to Go. In fact, he said once they went into the studio, the process was liberating.

“There was only one prerequisite,” he said. “We wanted to tie up a lot of the loose ends and wrap a little present with a bow. That was making sure we did something with Paul Barker, which was instrumental in getting this off the ground, and tip our caps to him and bring back some of our characters like Josh Bradford from Revolting Cocks.”

Jourgensen was honest about how he views Ministry’s music as providing snapshots of society, which is something he’s been focused on for the last couple of decades. And though he still thinks there is plenty to be said, he doesn’t believe he’s the guy to do it anymore.

“There’s no need to progress any further,” Jourgensen expressed.

“There’s no point because it would be the same thing over and over and over … I mean, good on people like Neil Young [who] are still shaking their fist at the clouds and doing something about it. But I’ve been doing this for a long time and it’s time to go.”

With everyone in Ministry happy with Hate to Go and ready to move on, Jourgensen did say they’re also ready to pass the torch to a younger generation.

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“We just played a few dates with Twin Tribes and they’re a band that interests me,” he said.

“They have a good moral compass and I hope that they don’t get trapped in the system, the recording industry system, the entertainment system. I’m one of the few people — they swallowed me whole in 1983, told me what to wear, what to do, what to write, this and that. And I was like, ‘This sucks.’ I wanted to quit right then. They swallowed me and I’ve passed through the digestive system of the record industry for 45 years, [but I] somehow managed to find my way out.”

What Else Did Ministry’s Al Jourgensen Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• How it feels to have Hate to Go – Take Out or Delivery out in the world: “[It feels] like I took a 20-pound shit. I feel great, are you kidding? This is like Metamucil on steroids for me.”
• Calling it quits with Ministry: “There’s no big drama about it or anything. I really could take it or leave it … It’s not like I’m clinging to Ministry and I keep teasing that I’m going to quit and then I come back a year later…I want to buck that trend and actually do what I say, because it’s time and we’ve come to peace with it. It’s not like I need the money. I don’t need the hassle. And I certainly don’t need to keep harping the same point over and over when nothing changes.”
• Looking ahead to Ministry’s final tour: “I’m already exhausted just thinking about it. To paraphrase [Charles] Bukowski, I just get tired thinking about all the places I don’t want to go. It’s like, I’m exhausted already. I just look at the sheet in front of me, I’m going, ‘Okay, this might be tough, but we’ll pull it off.'”

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Al Jourgensen joined Loudwire Nights on Wednesday, Nov. 11; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand here, as well as on Apple and Spotify.