Al Jourgensen Quotes

I love doing film soundtracks and working with directors on how they want the scene to be portrayed on audio as opposed to visual. I like the collaborative effort of working with people.

You tell me one other person that graduated from Yale that is as inarticulate as Bush. Yale’s a great school, and here’s this idiot.

I get along great with all of my exes. That’s really cool. That’s a good sign.

Everything shapes you to be the person you are today. Sometimes hard lessons pay off dividends.

I’m the biggest Blackhawks fan ever. I’ve been going to games since I was 6 years old.

In Ministry, we’ve only had one message: Think for yourself.

I don’t want people buying my records for this summer’s hit. I want people buying them because they’re interested in what Ministry will have to say in the future.

If you remember the ’90s, you weren’t there.

We’ll see if we ever do another Ministry gig again or not. I’m not saying yes or no yet. All I’m saying is I know there’s no new Ministry studio CDs coming ever again. I promise.

Rock n’ roll is for the young idiots, not an old fart like me.

I’m a studio rat. I like going in there as producer.

I’m a very firm believer in karma, and put it this way: I get a lot of good parking spots.

I don’t think we have the right haircut or tattoos for politics.

It’s typical of record companies. They sign you because you’re unique, and then they want to put you in a mold so they can sell records.

Nothing exceeds like excess.

You’re never quite prepared for the inundation of stardom, or whatever you want to call it.

You know what? I feel my book is kind of pointless. I didn’t want to do a book, but rather than tell the same old stories over and over when my wife Angie and I are out at parties, I could just hand out a bunch of books, and she won’t have to hear them ever again.

The main thing in measuring integrity is someone’s motive and intent, not how many records they sell. Our intent in Ministry was never to be big. We just wanted to make enough money to live and to buy a studio, which we have done in Austin.

I’m not working at the Chevron, although I’d probably be the best person to work the night shift. Look at me. Nobody would try to steal a Snickers on my watch.

I’ve never seen the Osbournes, I’ve never seen Paris Hilton. I’d rather read than watch reality TV. I’d rather live life than watch somebody else living it.

Ah, man, if I could ever hook up with Tom Waits, I’d be the happiest camper in Yellowstone, alright? That’s the one guy.

I don’t think I’ve ever done anything professionally.

I scare the neighbors, the kids… They don’t come to my house for trick-or-treating, trust me. I had to buy exactly zero amount of dollars worth of candy for the past couple of years.

I’m a very reluctant frontman. I’ve seen reviews where they talk about my strong presence on stage, but it’s nothing I do. It’s like the person in a long grocery line who stands out because he’s so agitated. He’ll have presence, too.

I just tell you what I feel. I go out there, you put a quarter on my tongue, twist my ear and I’ll spit out some hit for you.

I’d still prefer to do five nights at a club than one night at Allstate Arena.

Punk rock really influenced me, the basic metal bands, Zeppelin, Stones and Floyd, and Southern rock bands. I think I was pretty well-rounded.

If you had a Ministry box set under your Christmas tree, wrapped in paper, ‘From Beer to Eternity’ is the bow that goes around the present, you know what I mean?

Eventually, when I sell enough units, as they say in the record business, I will stop touring. I’ll concentrate on what I like to do… stay in the studio.

When I’m done with something, I’m done. I don’t go back and listen to and pine for my old albums, or the Lollapalooza days, or ‘Psalm 69’ selling millions of records. Maybe I’m really just getting old and mellow.

Being on stage is not creating, it’s re-creating.

‘Rock n’ Roll Animal,’ the live album, is one of the greatest live albums out there. It was a huge influence on me.

Let’s get with it, guys: You don’t need to hear a Ministry song to get political. You should be political on your own. We’re just a side project to society. So do I care what people think about me personally? No. I just do what I do.

Basically, an artist should be a mirror, or a reflection of society or his or her environment. What you see is what you can articulate.

I’m an all-or-nothing guy. When I’m working, I work, work, work, work, work, and when I’m not, I’m the laziest sloth this planet has ever provided us.

We have to support our local artists. It’s just that simple. Otherwise, we will have no art.

There’s a famous artist, Ron English, in New York, that just, or Andy Warhol for that matter, that did pop art that terrorized society. And that’s, for the last like 10, 15 years, that’s all I wanted to do, is terrorize society and make them look into a mirror and see what the hell we have wrought.

Ministry is just ZZ Top with technology.

I never want to be in that stage where a band ends up playing state fairs and casinos. I am not willing to go out shooting up Botox and eating corn dogs while judging pig contests.

I got my influences from ’70s bands – Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, blah blah blah. When I was growing up, we had all these crazy bands on the Top 40. Today, if Pink Floyd released ‘Money,’ it wouldn’t even get played.