Background

Ethnicity: Jourgensen was born to a Cuban mother and Norwegian father.

Al Jourgensen, born Alejandro Ramírez Casas, was born on October 9, 1958, in Havana, Cuba. He is the son of Margarita "Maggie" Brouwer and Gualberto Ramiro Casas. In 1961, at the age of three, he came to the United States to live with his mother and his Danish stepfather, Ed Jourgensen, who changed his name to Jourgensen. His stepfather was a stock car driver, and also a mechanic for Formula One driver Dan Gurney. Jourgensen was raised in Chicago, Illinois and Breckenridge, Colorado.

Education

Al graduated from Summit High School in Frisco, Colorado in 1976. He enrolled at the University of Northern Colorado as well as the University of Colorado, then he attended the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Career

In the late '70s, Jourgensen joined his first serious band, Special Affect, which specialized in the new wave sounds of the day. But after supplying the soundtrack to an obscure movie in 1980 (Too Much Soft Living), the group split up. A year later, Jourgensen formed Ministry (taking their name from the movie Ministry of Fear), and began issuing several electronic dance singles via the newly founded Wax Trax! label.

He also produced Skinny Puppy's 'Rabies' album. During that time, it is said that Jourgensen befriended Nivek Ogre, who later joined Ministry.

In 1984 Al Jourgensen was out for a hard night of drinking with some friends, so hard that the bartender threw them out, declaring them a bunch of revolting cocks. The name was first applied to one of Jourgensen's many side projects in 1985 when he partnered with Luc Van Acker and Front 242's Richard 23 to bring art and the dancefloor closer together. The group Revolting Cocks (Revco) appeared.

The buzz surrounding Ministry had grown to a roar by the time their oft-delayed fifth studio album, 'Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed' and the Way to Suck Eggs,' was issued in the summer of 1992. The album broke the group commercially - achieving gold status and introducing Jourgensen and his cronies to a whole new audience. But with success came rumors of hardcore drug use hampering certain members of the band.

However, its next album, 'Filth Pig' (1995), divided their fanbase, leading to a commercial decline that became evident when Warner Bros. Records dropped Ministry from the record label in 2001.

Ministry's newest albums, 'Rio Grande Blood' and 'The Last Sucker,' as well as the 2006 Revolting Cocks album 'Cocked and Loaded' were released on Jourgensen's new record label, 13th Planet Records. Jourgensen established his own record label, after falling out with the mainstream agendas of major industry labels.

Jourgensen and Ministry had a cameo appearance in Steven Spielberg's hit 2001 film 'A.I.' (playing a futuristic band), and the same year, issued their first true best-of compilation, titled 'Greatest Fits.' He has had a number of songs appear in other films, including the 2008 'Wicked Lake,' produced by Fever Dreams, for which he composed the entire soundtrack. He also took part in this film as an art school teacher.

In November 2008 Al Jourgensen announced the end of Ministry. The reasons behind this were Ministry "takes up so much time" as well as the hassle of getting out new albums. He also said he was responsible for six other bands (one of them was Revolting Cocks) and can get seven albums done a year when he is not working on new Ministry material.

Ministry played their final concert at the Tripod in Dublin, Ireland on 19 July 19th, 2008 and split up later that year. They announced a reunion on August 7th, 2011. The band was scheduled to play their first show in four years at Germany's Wacken Open Air festival in August 2012. A new album, titled 'Relapse,' was released on March 23, 2012. Devastated to continue on without guitarist Mike Scaccia, Ministry split up once again after they released their new album From Beer to Eternity in September 2013. However, they reunited in 2014.

In 2013 Jourgensen published his book "Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen."

Ministry's last album, 'AmeriKKKant,' was released in March of 2018, featuring the songs "Antifa" and "Twilight Zone." The group announced a summer tour dubbed the "Industrial Strength" tour with fellow industrial giants KMFDM and Front Line Assembly.

Achievements

• 

  Al Jourgensen distinguished himself as the founder and frontman of the industrial metal band Ministry. He has spent a lifetime going against the grain, musically with side projects including Revolting Cocks, Lard, and Surgical Meth Machine.
  
  He is considered to be the pioneer of industrial music. Al created seven seminal albums, including the bonafide, hugely influential classic 'The Land of Rape and Honey,' 1989’s 'The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste,' and 1992’s blockbuster 'Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed.'

Works

More photos

• book

  • Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen

    (Ministry is a memoir both ugly and captivating, revealing...)

    2013

• music

  • Big Sexy Land 1986
  • You Often Forget 1986
  • Live! You Goddamned Son Of A Bitch 1988
  • Stainless Steel Providers 1986
  • Beers, Steers + Queers 1990
  • Linger Ficken' Good 1993
  • Cocked and Loaded 2006
  • Cocktail Mixxx 2007
  • Sex-O Olympic-O 2009
  • Sex-O MiXXX-O 2009
  • Got Cock? 2010
  • ¿Got Mixx? 2011
  • Power Of Lard 1989
  • The Last Temptation Of Reid 1990
  • Pure Chewing Satisfaction 1997
  • 70's Rock Must Die 2000
  • With Sympathy 1983
  • Twitch 1986
  • Land Of Rape and Honey 1988
  • The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste 1989
  • Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs 1992
  • Filth Pig 1996
  • Dark Side Of The Spoon 1999
  • Animositisomina 2003
  • Houses of the Molé by Ministry 2004
  • Rio Grande Blood 2006
  • The Last Sucker 2007
  • Relapse 2012
  • Amerikkkant 2018

Religion

Al said about his religion: "I do believe in universal energy. I don't believe in a guy with a beard at some gate that lets you in or something like that. No. So, I don’t know. Does that make me religious or not? I do believe that 70% of the universe is dark matter, 30% is a light matter. I prefer to be in light matter. We're outnumbered, but there’s some of us that have to raise their voices against the dark matter if you will. It’s a scientific religion. As I said, I don't believe in St. Peter and the pearly gates and all that other crap. Am I religious? Yes. Absolu-, well, no. Not religious, spiritual."

Politics

Jourgensen frequently offered scathing criticism of the Bush family. Beginning with Ministry's 1992 album 'Psalm 69,' continuing with the 2004 album 'Houses of the Molé,' 2006's 'Rio Grande Blood,' and 2007's 'The Last Sucker.' His favorite targets have been former United States Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Ministry also contributed a song to the first 'Rock Against Bush' album. The theme continues on Ministry's 2007 offering and in Jourgensen's various side projects.

He expressed support for Barack Obama during the 2008 election, speaking in favor of progressive taxation. Jourgensen is thoughtful when it comes to politics, and he champions the idea of democracy - at least when everybody votes and participates.

Al Jourgensen has never been afraid to speak his mind, and on Ministry's latest album, 'AmeriKKKant,' he rails against President Trump and Republican policies.

He said about Trump's election: "I thought the election campaign was one big joke. But the human race has this fear built inside them from such an early age that if someone says, 'I have all the answers' then we just believe it. I went to bed on election night at 6 PM because I knew at that point what we were getting. Actually, it was when Brexit happened that I just realized that there was no hope. I mocked it at the start and I got it badly wrong."

Views

In the interview, Jourgensen once said about social changing: "To me, this feels like 1968, and there were some great points to the resistance in 1968, but it became trivialized and became just another fashion movement. Just cosmetic changes happened, not systematic ones. When you think about the '60s, with civil rights and gender equality and anti-war movements, what did we really get out of it? Bellbottoms, Woodstock, LSD, and pot! We're still in the same place. People are taking to the streets, but the system is still in place. So, you haven't changed anything, you're just wearing bellbottoms then and looking at cat videos now!"

Also, Al is known as a staunch feminist and an outspoken anti-fascist.

Quotations: "This administration affects the everyday life of the common person."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Nothing exceeds like excess."

"Art is commenting on what's going on around you in your life."

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

Personality

During his career, Jourgensen has engaged in all of the rock 'n' roll clichés regarding decadence and debauchery and invented new forms of previously unachieved nihilism.

He survived prolonged drug addiction - twenty-two years of chronic heroin, cocaine, and alcohol abuse, to be more precise - before cleaning up, straightening out.

Interests

• Teaching

• Sport & Clubs

  Hockey, Blackhawks

• Music & Bands

  The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, Can, Kraftwerk, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Kitty Wells, Buck Owens, George Jones, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis

Connections

Jourgensen was married twice. First, he was married to Patty Marsh from 1984 to 2002. He has a daughter from the marriage, Adrienne, born April 13, 1985. He remarried in September 2002 to Angelina Lukacin at Graceland mansion. The couple divorced in 2014.

Father:

Gualberto Ramiro Casas

Mother:

Margarita Brouwer

stepfather:

Ed Jourgensen

ex-wife:

Patty Marsh

ex-wife:

Angelina Lukacin

Daughter:

Adrienne Jourgensen

ex-girlfriend:

Aimee Mann

colleague:

John Bechdel

colleague:

Sin Quirin

colleague:

Paul D'Amour

colleague:

London May

colleague:

Nivek Ogre

References

• Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal
  2013