Ministry
Al Jourgensen
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Musical artists from Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, Slipknot's Corey Taylor, Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta have looked to Al Jourgensen as a source of inspiration. Korn's Jonathan Davis recalls here the first time he met the Ministry singer and saw a syringe hanging from a vein.
Jourgensen spit gooey gobs of chewing tobacco at celebrities on the red carpet at the 49th Grammy Awards.
Needless to say, Al Jourgensen has had a storied, stormy and pretty sordid career and life. Here he talks about everything from addiction
(at one time or another he was hooked on heroin, cocaine, crack, alcohol, and sex) to the music he makes. The singer sheds light on his Cuban
roots and growing up in Chicago. Along the way, he befriended Beat legends William S.
Burroughs and Timothy Leary and would ultimately form 13th Planet Records.
It is a stark retelling of the musician's life, and no rock is left unturned.
Here he recounts his relationship with drugs: What I was doing wasn't art anymore. It wasn't fun--it was procedure. And the same with the drugs. It was maintenance, and like any habit, it turned into ritual--shoot, snort, shoot, snort, shoot, snort, shoot snort. Repeat. I wasn't enjoying what I used to love, so I decided to rebel harder than ever and push the limits to their utmost extremes. Mikey and I were shooting speedballs, blending smack and coke in the same syringe so you don't nod off and you don't get wired. If you get the mix right, you feel calm and free. But it's a deadly combination, one that killed Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak as well as John Belushi, Chris Farley, and Mitch Hedberg. What can I say?
Even when I had given up and wanted to die, I was a survivor. Jourgensen htalks about every last second of his life here. You will be appalled, shocked and disturbed, but you won't put this down until the last page.
Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Steven Rosen, 2013
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