{"id":3733,"date":"2023-06-16T20:13:11","date_gmt":"2023-06-17T01:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=3733"},"modified":"2023-06-16T20:13:12","modified_gmt":"2023-06-17T01:13:12","slug":"ministrys-al-jourgensen-exclusively-reveals-plans-to-re-record-long-disavowed-with-sympathy-songs-fuck-it-instead-of-being-owned-lets-own-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=3733","title":{"rendered":"Ministry’s Al Jourgensen exclusively reveals plans to re-record long-disavowed ‘With Sympathy’ songs: ‘Fuck it. Instead of being owned, let’s own it.’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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photo by Dale Patrick Bennett for MK ULTRA Magazine<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOURCE: Lyndsey Parker<\/a><\/strong> \u00b7 Editor in Chief, Yahoo Music<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou are the one and only. That’s it. I’m not talking about it after this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So proclaims Ministry mastermind Al Jourgensen, speaking exclusively with Yahoo Entertainment from his home in Los Angeles. It\u2019s been 40 years since the release of Ministry\u2019s uncharacteristically synthpoppy debut, With Sympathy<\/em>, and it\u2019s taken that long for the industrial-metal provocateur \u2014 who quickly, furiously disavowed the album and went on to pull off one of the most drastic career\/image reinventions in music history \u2014 to even begin to come to terms with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy hatred for this record was so<\/em> deep,\u201d says Jourgensen. \u201cAs a matter of fact, the two-inch [master] tapes of it, the actual two-inch tapes, I had a barbecue party and I burned them on a barbecue. So, there’s no existing original With Sympathy<\/em>\u2019s. I just burned<\/em> them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now, in a completely Hellfest-freezing-over development, Jourgensen is pulling a Taylor Swift of sorts, exclusively revealing plans to re-record as many as four classic\u00a0With Sympathy<\/em>\u00a0tracks in his signature heavier, angrier style. In fact, on the very day of this interview\u2019s publication, Ministry are heading into the studio to commence work on a new recording of the early\u00a0120 Minutes<\/em>\u00a0hit \u201cRevenge.\u201d And if all goes well, they\u2019ll proceed with reworking the only other\u00a0With Sympathy<\/em>\u00a0cuts that Jourgensen says he actually wrote: \u201cEffigy,\u201d \u201cWork for Love,\u201d and \u201cHere We Go.\u201d As for when fans might hear these new versions, he teases: \u201cI think it’s going to be sooner than you think.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re doing \u2018Revenge\u2019\u2026 this version that we have, it’s going to be different. Let’s turn it from this synthpop thing into a metal arena-rock song\u2026 and then we’ll take it from there and see where it goes,\u201d says Jourgensen, divulging that he is \u201cthinking about possibly playing that song live on the next tour\u201d or even embarking on an \u201cEarly Ministry Tour\u201d before the band retires in the near future. \u201cIf we can make it sound the way I want it, when I originally came up with these songs, then yes, I will do it. If not, I won’t. \u2026 So, we’re working our way towards putting a bow on the whole thing and calling it a career. And then everyone can leave me the f*** alone so I can do what the fuck I want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call this surprising new labor-of-hate\u00a0With Sympathy (Al\u2019s Version)<\/em>, if you will. \u201cI can’t\u00a0believe<\/em>\u00a0that I agree with Taylor Swift \u2026 yet another first!\u201d Jourgensen chuckles. \u201cI do agree with her [decision to redo her old material], yeah. This is like, management-controlled music, and then when you finally go into your own and you have enough veritas to pull it off and fuck off to the system and the companies and the management and all that, then it becomes kind of like you own it \u2014 instead of they are owning you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casual Ministry fans \u2014 or fans who only got on board once the band (ironically) broke through with much less commercial-sounding industrial albums like The Land of Rape and Honey<\/em>, The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste<\/em>, and Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs<\/em> \u2014 might not fully grasp the significance of Jourgensen embracing a record that he had such an \u201csuch an aversion towards,\u201d he literally did not listen to it for 40 years. So, let\u2019s go back to the beginning, when a struggling young Jourgensen signed to Arista Records and found himself subjected to a new wave makeover; ill-fated tours opening for Culture Club, Madness, and the Police; and making what he describes as \u201csome little pop-synth-manipulation thing of 1983, a Clive Davis fever-dream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was living in a squat, an abandoned building, on 9th and Roosevelt in Chicago. There was a hole in the roof of where we were staying, so I used to have to shovel snow out of my apartment,\u201d Jourgensen recalls of his starving-artist days. \u201cAnd then [legendary Arista executive] Clive Davis calls on the phone and you’re living in a squat, and he offers you [a deal] to you. It’s just like you won the lottery. \u2026 So, it was like I sold out before I started. I just like,\u00a0completely\u00a0<\/em>sold out. \u2026 Of\u00a0course<\/em>\u00a0I was into it! Who wouldn’t be?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In retrospect, Jourgensen says the Arista contract \u201cwasn’t lucrative at all \u2014 but it did get me out of the squat.\u201d The first sign that this wasn\u2019t going to be the big opportunity he\u2019d hoped for should<\/em> have been when \u201cthey said, \u2018OK, we have control over your look. We have final approval on your songs. We have final approval on your producer. We have final approval on your musicians. We have final approval on where you record. We have final approval on your videos, and who does them. We have final approval<\/em>.\u2019 But I was 21, 22 years old, living in a squat, going, \u2018This sounds pretty good to me, man!\u2019 At 21, 22, when you’re shoveling snow, you don’t have a permanent job, and you’re freezing your ass off in Chicago… and somebody offers you all this stuff? I’m like, \u2018I’m down with it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jourgensen actually first realized he\u2019d made a huge mistake \u201cthe day I had to get my hair cut. I was like being drafted into the military. I was like, \u2018Oh my God!\u2019 I’d spent years battling my parents to grow my hair, and then to have it cut off? And then going to this f***ing horrible place on Melrose, Fred Segal, to have them pick out suits for me, sharkskin suits. It was like [dapper ABC frontman] Martin Fry \u2014 a\u00a0Walmart<\/em>\u00a0Martin Fry. \u2026 They also decided my manager would be Elliot Roberts, who did like the Cars, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, blah, blah, blah, blah. We were their \u2018baby act.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd then<\/em>, by the time I get to London at AIR Studios, where I’m meeting Paul McCartney and recording at George Martin’s studio and this should all be great, there\u2019s a daily call from Clive Davis and Arista about what we should be working on today \u2014 and the rejection of all the songs that they\u2019d signed me for!\u201d Jourgensen recalls, saying some of those vetoed tracks included \u201c(Every Day Is) Halloween,\u201d \u201cThe Nature of Love,\u201d \u201cAll Day,\u201d and \u201cI’ll Do Anything for You,\u201d all of which became Ministry classics years later. \u201cI realized, \u2018OK, this is not<\/em> gonna end well.\u2019 \u2026 I would be in a studio in London and get a call at like, 6 in the afternoon, which would be about 11 o’clock Clive Davis\u2019s time, and he would either do it himself or get somebody to sing lyrics of what we were supposed to do today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat still confuses me to this day, because I think all they really cared about was the male-model Zoolander pretty-boy look,\u201d Jourgensen continues, wondering aloud why Arista didn\u2019t just sign one of the countless fledgling synthpop bands who already had the slick look and sound that Davis \u2014 who\u2019d also recently signed the Thompson Twins and Haircut 100 \u2014 was supposedly seeking. \u201cThey found a little white kid \u2014 you know, before the piercings, tattoos, and all this other shit. I guess they thought I was good-looking? It really boils down to that kind of simplistic thinking: that they could mold me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jourgensen says he \u201cdid the best job I could on that album with both hands tied behind my back,\u201d but he loathed the result, and despite With Sympathy<\/em>\u2019s modest success (it cracked the Billboard 200 and spawned two top 20 U.S. Dance Chart hits), he wanted to exit his Arista deal immediately. \u201cI was just like, \u2018I don’t care<\/em> at this point. Just get me off this label. Anything you have to do!\u2019\u201d he recalls. \u201cI rebelled, and I went through legal channels to get off this label when I realized how oppressive this was. I couldn’t look into a mirror anymore. I hired a lawyer, and Clive Davis actually had the Thompson Twins call me and say, \u2018Stick with it, because we each just got 3 million-pound checks for our last year. Our first year wasn’t so good, but this year is really good. Stick with Clive!\u2019 [Davis] actually sent a psychiatrist to my house in Chicago to see if I was able to play along with the game. That kind of shit.. \u2026 [The psychiatrist] just asked me a bunch of questions and I told him to f*** off and kicked him out of my house after about half-hour. Like, \u2018What the f*** is this? This is like, really intrusive.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some music industry pundits must have thought Jourgensen was totally foolish to want to part with a major label like Arista, but he insists, \u201cAll of my\u00a0friends<\/em>\u00a0thought I was doing the absolute right thing. I have a good circle of friends. They were just like, \u2018You’ve made an ass of yourself. \u2026 You’re\u00a0way<\/em>\u00a0too talented for this. So, follow your heart.\u2019 And that’s what I did, on the advice of my friends and everyone else that was close to me,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt didn’t matter [if I had success afterwards]. Career aside, just I knew that I could look myself in a mirror at the end of the night and be happy with what I saw. That is priceless. There’s no Thompson Twins price you could put on that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast-forward to January 2020, when Jourgensen\u2019s friend, Lethal Amounts gallery owner Danny Fuentes, somehow convinced the famously disgruntled singer to accompany him to L.A. nightclub Zebulon to watch a Ministry tribute band\u2026 called With Sympathy. Yes, that\u2019s right: a cover band that only <\/em>covered With Sympathy<\/em> songs. Fuentes probably thought the excursion would just be a fun lark \u2014 \u201cThere was no advance warning, no guestlist, no VIP; I just showed up, wasted,\u201d Jourgensen chuckles \u2014 but that one random night altered the course of Ministry history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jourgensen was completely unaware of the cult status his disavowed debut had attained \u2014 his shunning of the album had probably, if unintentionally, only made it even more beloved among\u00a0With Sympathy<\/em>\u00a0defenders \u2014 and he was \u201camazed. \u2026 I had no idea people even knew what \u2018Work for Love\u2019 was! \u2026 I saw like 800 people on a Tuesday night really responding to this, and just went like, \u2018Whoa<\/em>. I don’t get it.\u2019 So, actually, the next day I went back and listened to the album \u2014 and I hated it as much as ever! But seeing it in action, I was impressed \u2014 like, \u2018OK, there’s something there.\u2019 I could see why people would maybe like this. \u2026 And then it brought back a flood of different emotions and all that. By the end of that night, seeing that band made me go, \u2018OK, this is not something to be so\u00a0angry<\/em>\u00a0about for the rest of your life. This is OK. Let it go.\u2019 \u2026 That night I went, \u2018You know what? Yeah. Fuck it. Instead of being owned, let’s own it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast-forward again to 2023, when Jourgensen \u2014 who\u2019d already started warming to earlier Ministry material in 2019, when he played \u201c(Every Day Is) Halloween\u201d live for the first time in 30 years \u2014 went on the road with fellow reinvented electronic music trailblazer Gary Numan. It was then that his Ministry bandmates surprised him with a revamped version of \u201cRevenge.\u201d Jourgensen recalls, \u201cThey were amazed at my reaction. They\u2019d worked on this secretly for months<\/em>! \u2026 They waited till I was on about eight shrooms and they broke it out for me on the bus. And I was just like, \u2018F***, that actually sounds good<\/em>!\u2019 \u2014 like, good for this<\/em> band. So, I have to credit not only this [With Sympathy] cover band, but I have to credit my current band for pushing this to the forefront and forcing me to do this. Well, not forcing <\/em>me. Now I’m a willing accomplice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHearing these songs updated with this band that I have now is pretty amazing,\u201d Jourgensen continues with surprising enthusiasm, explaining that the impromptu bus session made him believe \u201cabout half the [With Sympathy<\/em>] album we could convert to this current band and update, and make arena-rock. \u2026 I’m dipping my toe into this [early] stuff and realizing there was some significance to it at the time that I didn’t understand. I felt really shackled [in 1983] by what I wanted to do and what they were having me do, because of the system. \u2026 But we’re in a spot where we’re like wise elders, and a lot of people look up to us that we stood up to the system, we survived, and were able to continue going forward, doing exactly what the fuck we want to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI view it as almost like karmic, where my career is winding down with Ministry,\u201d Jourgensen elaborates. \u201cI’m going stop Ministry in an album or two. I have other things I want to do and I’m really kind of now shackling myself [to the band], instead of Arista Records shackling me. \u2026 So, I figure there’s only maybe one more Ministry album to go. Maybe two, but probably one; the second one might actually be a remake of\u00a0With Sympathy<\/em>, to tie a bow on the whole thing. [Editor’s note:\u00a0Without Sympathy<\/em>\u00a0would be a brilliant title for that full-circle release.] \u2026 I think this next year or two is going be really transformative, in the sense that I’m wrapping a bow on my entire career and saying, \u2018Drop mic. Thank you. Thank you for buying our T-shirts.\u2019 \u2026 It’s gonna be an interesting next couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much as Jourgensen still claims that he has \u201cno fond memories\u201d of making With Sympathy<\/em> four decades ago and still doesn\u2019t quite understand its appeal, he is excited to revisit the material in the studio, and he believes that any resulting 2023 remakes will appeal to fans of all Ministry eras. \u201c[The new versions will be] a lot more guitar-driven, but not metal. It’s pop \u2014 it\u2019s still pop. Just, we’ve done it in a way that I think everyone is going to enjoy and see the 40-year progression of how you wrestle with an alligator,\u201d he says. \u201cWait till you hear the new versions. You’re gonna fall in love with us all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

photo by Dale Patrick Bennett for MK ULTRA Magazine SOURCE: Lyndsey Parker \u00b7 Editor in Chief, Yahoo Music \u201cYou are the one and only. That’s it. I’m not talking about it after this.\u201d So proclaims Ministry mastermind Al Jourgensen, speaking exclusively with Yahoo Entertainment from his home in Los Angeles. It\u2019s been 40 years since… Read More »Ministry’s Al Jourgensen exclusively reveals plans to re-record long-disavowed ‘With Sympathy’ songs: ‘Fuck it. Instead of being owned, let’s own it.’<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3735,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3733\/revisions\/3735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}