Trivia / Ministry

• Black Sheep Hit: The song "Everyday is Halloween" is probably the only evidence to younger fans that they ever played Synth-Pop, and one of few songs of that period that Al Jourgensen still keeps in print.
• Bury Your Art:
  • With Sympathy is a Synthpop record that is very of its time and quite different from what the band became after Jourgensen discovered industrial music. The album has a solid fanbase (some of which only like this era of Ministry) and modest critical acclaim. Jourgensen, however, absolutely despised the record for the longest time and claimed to have destroyed any copies of it he had come across. In 2023, he said he destroyed the two-inch master tapes for the album years before by barbecuing them on a grill.
  • Averted with several singles from this period such as "Everyday is Halloween" and "Cold Life"; the compilation on which they appeared, Twelve Inch Singles (1981–1984) received an officially endorsed Updated Re-release in the form of Early Trax.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Jourgensen's outright hatred of With Sympathy has cooled over the years, although he still doesn't personally like the album and doesn't really acknowledge it as a Ministry album. In 2017, he told Rolling Stone "Some people like it, and good on them. It took me years to like stop loathing that album or distancing myself from it. It is what it is." By 2020, he had finally came around on the album somewhat after he discovered there was a Ministry tribute band that only played songs from With Sympathy, attended one of their concerts, and saw the reaction those songs received. That experience resulting him planning out a re-recording of the album with a different sound. Al meant it, as in August of 2023, Ministry played ''Revenge'' live for the first time since 1994.
  • In a 2016 interview where Al ranked all Ministry albums released at that point, he revealed Animositisomina to be his least favorite album due to him constantly being sick from kicking his heroin habit at the time and his falling out with Paul Barker. In the same interview he claimed he left the sessions two days earlier than planned in frustration, which is why the final track, "Leper", was left as an instrumental.
• Fatal Method Acting: Mike Scaccia, longtime guitarist for band (he was a part of both the classic lineup and the reunited 2012 configuration) died of a heart attack while performing at a club in Texas in December 2012 with the band Rigor Mortis.
• Money, Dear Boy: Al did some advertising/jingle work in the 1980s, including this widely circulated Shasta ad.
• The Other Marty: Trent Reznor was to sing on 1000 Homo DJs' "Supernaut", but his label, TVT Records, wouldn't allow it to be released, so Al Jourgensen re-recorded the vocals himself ^note rumor has it that they merely distorted Reznor's vocal track beyond recognition and released it that way, but Jourgensen's always denied this. The "Trent Reznor Vocal Version" of "Supernaut" eventually saw official release on the box set Black Box – Wax Trax! Records: The First 13 Years... which was, ironically enough, released by TVT - the label had bought out the whole back catalog of Wax Trax! Records at that point, which included 1000 Homo DJs.
  • Chris Connelly first worked with Al Jourgensen when Al asked him to add his own vocals and lyrics to an instrumental he was working on. Connelly went on to join Revolting Cocks and make appearances on recordings by Ministry and various other side projects, but the instrumental track eventually became "I Will Refuse" by Pailhead, featuring new lyrics written and performed by Ian MacKaye. Connelly's version of the song appears on his rarities/ "Personal Favorites" compilation Initials C.C., where it's titled "Stick" and credited to Revolting Cocks.
• Referenced by...: The second verse of Aesop Rock's "Blood Sandwich" retells a time in his youth when his older brother, Chris, heard that Ministry was playing in concert nearby, which was to be the highlight of his adolescent life. However, this was shut down when his mother forbade him from going, out of misplaced fear that they were Satanists.
• Throw It In!: There were actual lyrics to "Jesus Built My Hotrod" at first, but when Gibby Haynes started doing some psychotic scatting over the instrumental track, Al liked that better and used that in the final product.
  • The lyrics to "Jesus Built My Hotrod" are similar to the ones in Butthole Surfers song "Some Dispute Over T-Shirt Sales" off the album "Independent Worm Saloon", although the song is question was performed live as early as 1990.
• What Could Have Been: Ministry were set to headline the second stage at Ozzfest in 2000. Reportedly, they ended up getting replaced with Soulfly soon after... while barely telling Ministry beforehand. Al is still furious about it and has turned down every Ozzfest offer since.
  • According to some sources, early on, Al had the idea of Ministry being two sister groups: Ministry of Funk would release dance club oriented material and Ministry of Fear would release darker, more experimental works.
  • Al initially didn't even want to be a singer, preferring to focus on production and songwriting - after an early bout of auditioning various singers who "sucked", he decided to just do it himself.
  • In January of 2020, Ministry announced that they were to embark on The Industrial Strength Tour, a celebration of the 30 year anniversary of The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste and featuring fellow Wax Trax! Records alumni KMFDM and Front Line Assembly. The inclusion of these two bands effectively turned the tour into a 90's industrial all-star line up. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the tour had to be rescheduled several times, with KMFDM dropping off due to restrictions in their native Germany, and Front Line Assembly later being dropped from the tour as well, which they alleged was done with no forewarning or explanation from the Ministry camp. These bands were replaced with the Melvins and Corrosion Of Conformity as support. While The Industrial Strength Tour finally did occurr in 2022, and the revamped lineup was likely more appealing to metal fans, Ministry was the only band on the bill that could be described as "industrial", and the "tribute to the classic era of Wax Trax!" aspect of the tour was lost entirely.