[kj] (OT) Ministry's Time is Limited

[TB]

Ministry Plots Final Disc
May 26, 2006, 3:30 PM ET
Gary Graff, Detroit

Ministry's days are numbered, according to group leader Al Jourgensen.

Jourgensen, who has led the group and its numerous side projects since
1981, says that after Ministry finishes its current MasterBaTour, he
plans to go right back into the studio for what he says will be "the
last Ministry album." And, he promises, this is no cheap ploy to get
attention for the band.

"I've got other things to do," Jourgensen explains. "I just started a
label (13th Planet Records), and I want to sign some bands and really
build it up like I did with WaxTrax in the '80s, not just a vanity
label. I think it's time -- and I'll be leaving on the top of my game
instead of hanging on too long and doing crappy Aerosmith and Rolling
Stones albums 30 years later."

Jourgensen, who lives near Waco, Texas, says that like its two
predecessors -- 2004's "Houses of the Mole" and this year's "Rio Grande
Blood" -- the final Ministry album will be politically minded blast at
the administration of President George W. Bush.

"It's a trilogy," Jourgensen says. "The next one's going to be called
'The Last Sucker,' and it's also about this corrupt administration.
That seems to be my muse; everyone seems to think I write real shitty
music when a Democrat's in office. So we'll do that one, and then me
and George Bush go riding off hand-in-hand, into the sunset."

Jourgensen has plenty to do on the road these days as well. Besides
fronting Ministry, he's opening the shows -- which are booked into late
July -- with one of his other bands, the Revolting Cocks, whose latest
album, "Cocked and Loaded," came out March 7 and features guests such
as ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen and Robin Zander,
the Butthole Surfers' Gibby Haynes and former Dead Kennedys frontman
Jello Biafra. Jourgensen says that playing in both bands is rewarding
-- but tiring.

"It sounded good on paper when I drew it up but, yeah, I'm feeling
about 90 right now," he says with a laugh. "But it's cool. I can cut
loose with the Cocks and then use the brain on the kind of focused
agenda of Ministry, which is pretty much the same as anyone's
dichotomous life."