From Wax Trax to 'The Last Sucker': A history of Ministry
After more than 12 albums and countless tours, Ministry is allegedly saying farewell. Here is a look at some high points in the band’s career.
1981: Al (sometimes Alien or Alain) Jourgensen, the one consistent in every incarnation of the group, forms the band with drummer Stephen George. It will release four 12-inch singles for Wax Trax! Records through 1984.
(Sun-Times file)
1983: Ministry issues its debut album, “With Sympathy,” on Arista Records. It sounds almost nothing like the band of the last 25 years, and Jourgensen now refers to it as “an abortion of an album.”
1986: Jourgensen signs to Sire and records “Twitch” almost entirely on his own.
1988: Having linked up with bassist Paul Barker, his ideal foil, Jourgensen introduces the new, soon to be trademark Ministry sound on “The Land of Rape and Honey,” eventually certified gold with sales of 500,000. The band also includes drummer Bill Rieflin, now a member of R.E.M.
1991: Ministry goes mainstream during “the year punk broke” with help from Butthole Surfer Gibby Haynes on the single “Jesus Built My Hotrod.” Another hit follows with “N.W.O.,” protesting the first Gulf war.
1992: The metal-edged album “Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs” sells more than a million copies. The band performs on the strongest lineup of the original Lollapalooza tour, often stealing the show from headliners the Red Hot Chili Peppers and upstarts Pearl Jam by prompting fans to tear up the arenas’ grass fields and hurl them at the stage. It is accompanied by a troupe of metal-clad go-go dancers who become part of the tour after a chance meeting in Cleveland.
1995: The band’s momentum having been slowed by Jourgensen’s drug problems, things get even worse when police raid his ranch in Texas. He is sentenced to five year’s probation for possession, and the release of Ministry’s next album, “Filth Pig,” is delayed until 1996. It is a commercial disappointment.
1999: The group releases its final album for Sire, “Dark Side of the Spoon,” dedicated to former guitarist William Tucker, who committed suicide. The group also appears in the Steven Spielberg film “AI: Artificial Intelligence.”
2001: Recovering from a poisonous spider bite, Jourgensen makes the decision to clean up. The group begins recording for the indies, first on Sanctuary, then on Jourgensen’s own 13th Planet Records.
2003: Barker leaves the band, ending Jourgensen’s longest and most fruitful collaboration.
2008: Having recovered with an uncompromising and rewarding trio of albums — “Houses of the Mole” (2004), “Rio Grande Blood” (2006) and “The Last Sucker” (2007) — Ministry concludes its alleged farewell tour.
