For nearly 30 years, Ministry has been hammering beats, screaming out against the system and generally tearing things up. Now 50, the only remaining original member, and frontman, Al Jourgensen has decided it's time for the band to call it quits.

The band's last three albums were all anti-Bush diatribes and as the President sees his final days in office, Jourgensen felt it's time to say goodbye as well. With the final album in the trilogy, The Last Sucker, and a CD of cover songs, Cover Up, Jourgensen feels now is the right time for it to end.

He recently spoke to Creative Loafing about the final tour, entitled "C U LaTouR" and his plans for the future:

Al?

What's up?

Not much. How are you?

Burnt, tired. (laughs)

So, tour's going well, huh?

Oh yeah.

Have you had any second thoughts about this being the final tour?

Not even close, no. I'm totally over it. I'm booked for the next three years anyways doing production projects, soundtracks and things, running the label, so there's ... yeah. I'm a little too old to be carrying on like a 20-year-old anymore.

But it's fun with the last hurrah, I guess?

It's work, you know? I forgot. It's been a couple years since I toured. You don't bounce back as easy at 50 as you did at 20. But the shows sound great, the band's tighter than shit and ... in that sense the shows are good. It's just all the traveling and stuff. I'm over it, trust me.

Are you doing anything special to do it out right?

Where are you gonna be at?

Charlotte.

Charlotte? No. We're just gonna go kick some ass. Burton [C. Bell] is with us. Like I said, I don't know if you know who's in the band, but it's probably the best band that we've ever had at least according to our road crew that's been with us for, like, five tours and all that stuff. I think we're getting some pretty good reviews on the shows, so...

When it was originally announced, there was talk of a two-and-a-half-hour set and it's gonna cover the band's history. From what I've read, that's changed and the set is focusing on the new albums. Is there any reason for that?

Yeah, I'm just really ... I just got tired of playing all the old stuff. I'm not a fucking jukebox. (laughs) Put a quarter in my mouth and turn my ear and I spit out the '90s hits for you -- I don't think so. It's more fun to play the newer type stuff and on top of that the band is more suited for that type of speed attack. It's working out great. It's almost a two-hour set and that's plenty. We're not the fuckin' Grateful Dead or Bruce Springsteen or something, you know? Not only that, I'd love to see them play that fast for two hours. They do all their "Born in the USA" and then there's a bunch of clapping and then they talk to the crowd for a while. "How's everybody doing?" We just waste through our shit. I could stretch it to two-and-a-half hours if I wanted to be an idiot and talk to the crowd for a half hour and get everyone clapping and stuff.

You don't do any clapping? (laughs)

No, you know, the latest thing is on "Khyber Pass," I actually light up a lighter and hold it over my head and all the idiots hold up lighters on that song. It's the only slow one we really do, so it's like ... (laughs)

Do you have a new mic stand on this tour? I know the last time I saw you, you had a new one with handlebars on it -- metal snakes.

No, that one's sitting in the Hard Rock in Amsterdam. They bought that off us. I got a skull mic stand. It's pretty bitchin'. I used it last tour and really got used to it. We were gonna make a new one, but it's kinda like my security blanket. It's just perfect. It's the perfect weight and everything so I held on to it. We are bringing the fence back which we haven't done since like '89 and we have some new visuals and some new banners. The actual stage looks great. A little bit of old, a little bit of new.

The other thing I've heard is that you've got Burton singing a good bit of the encore.

I've got him singing the old stuff. Like I said, I'm sick of doing it. I've been doing it for almost 30 years. So, Burton is singing on "N.W.O." and "Just One Fix" and the '90s stuff, blah, blah, blah and he's singing on the covers stuff since there's a new album and we might as well promote it while it's out. I think he does six or seven songs, something like that.

Are you worried about any kind of disappointment from fans in that way? I understand with the old stuff, but maybe they wish you were sending it out.

Dude, I mean, I bust my ass on the other 14 songs, you know? I am singing at least on "So What" and "Roadhouse Blues." Burton sounds great on it and frankly, I don't give a fuck if you're disappointed because I know we sound great. The shows are going great and they're really well-received and they're almost all sold out.

If they want to hear the old stuff, they should have been there in the '90s.

Exactly ... exactly!

At what point ... talking of the retirement, I know your age, you've got the label and other stuff you want to do, but at what point did you decide that it's time to hang it up?

I said that before the last tour. I already announced two-and-a-half years ago that this was gonna be my last tour and we started moving towards producing other bands like Prong and Ascension of the Watchers and getting the label revved up so it's not just an outlet vanity label for Ministry and RevCo. RevCo is touring this fall and I'm not gonna be on that either. I've got three new knuckleheads to run RevCo and I'm basically the producer guy and that way I get to stay home with my two Labradors. I don't have to travel around like some drunken idiot all over the fuckin' world.

Any thoughts of one-off shows or anything like that is out the window, too?

Nothing like that. It's basically impossible anyways because we've got a rotating lineup and most of the guys are in other bands. Not most, all of them are in other bands. It's really hard to do a one-off because you have to rehearse and then you'd have to fly people in depending on schedules of the other bands and all that other shit. It's not possible. It's not like a Who reunion or a Zeppelin reunion with the son playing drums. It would be impossible for us to do that nor does that really interest me. I think bands that play past their prime ... I'm really happy that we're going out on top doing some really good music and still able to pull it off as opposed to seeing these Botox bands on the fuckin' state fair circuit. It's been 15 years since they even wrote a decent song. It's depressing. I'd rather have people see us go out while we're still relevant.

And you're still making good music.

Yeah.

Looking back, aside from personnel, how do you think the band has changed over the years?

Well, I mean, basically, everyone brings their own personality to the band. I know that the most fun that I've ever had in my career has been on Rio Grande Blood and on Cover Up and on Last Sucker because of what Tommy and Paul Raven -- who recently passed away -- brought to the table. They put their own stamp on it. I love collaborating. I've collaborated with a billion fuckin' people over the years especially if you produce stuff, you better like collaborating cause that's what you're doing. When it was Barker and me, that kind of got stale for me after a while. The drug addiction didn't help. I had a blast on the last few records and that's another good reason to stop -- let's keep it that way. That's a good memory for me, these last three records.

Are you as happy producing?

Oh, big time. Like I said, I prefer doing that than traipsing around the fuckin' country on some tour bus trying to figure out what truck stop you can take a crap in. (laughs) You know, it's not real glamorous like everyone thinks. You wake up in the morning, you have a cup of coffee on the bus and you're scrambling around trying to not touch cloth, you know ... (laughs) "Please pull over, driver, I gotta crap!" (laughs) I don't need that at 50 years old. Leave that for the kids. They can figure out where to crap. I like my own toilet.

Has it been like this the last few tours? Have you gotten over it where it's been a pain in the ass?

Touring and the press thing, too. Nobody ever interviews producers. You guys are a pain in my ass. Truck stops are a pain in my ass. I've been over it for the last five tours, almost. I saw that this is the perfect time for me to do this. Touring's a blast when you're in your twenties or maybe early-thirties at most and then, trust me, it's not so glamorous. Especially if you're married and you love your wife and you're not into the whole backstage scene with groupies. Trust me, you won't catch me backstage. There's no way. I take a car and walk directly from the car to the stage and get right back in and get the hell out of there. (laughs) I leave the mayhem for all the younger kids. They have a blast and they should. I'm a little bit too old and cranky for this stuff.

Why do you think you've lasted so long in this business? So many bands just burn out.

I think because of the studio work that I do. I could stay there -- I do stay there 16 hours a day, seven days a week and I love what I do. I love being in there. Especially when you own your own studio so you're not looking at the clock and worrying about bills and all that stuff, I could sit in there forever. I think the music kind of reflects that. I'm totally into that. It's all the press and the fuckin' parties and the traveling around and all that other stuff that I grew over, but the studio stuff's great. I'm busier now in the studio than I've ever been in my life.

Will you keep creating music, or will you just work with other bands?

A little bit of both, but not under Ministry and not under Al Jorgensen. I talked to Jello Biafra the other day about doing another Lard record. I talked to Ian MacKaye about doing another Pailhead record. I've got my country project that I've been bitching about for 20 years that I finally can now be freed up to get it done. Ministry takes up a year-and-a-half of my time with just one release when I can be doing six or seven release on my label a year if I don't have to do four months of press and six months of touring and all that other shit.

I was going to ask about the Buck Satan project ...

Yeah, I've actually gotten one song done that's called, "I Hate Every Bone In Your Body Except Mine." So ... we'll start with that.

Will you still perform in the future or will you just stay home and be happy out of the studio?

Yeah, I'm just going to release stuff. I promised the Cocks ... I told the Revolting Cocks that cause we've already finished the album, but it won't be out until next September. I tried to get all of my studio stuff done before I went out on this massive Ministry brouhaha that we've got going. So, the album is smokin'. It's, to me, I think it's the best album I've ever done in my life and that includes Ministry, Lard, Pailhead and all that stuff. I think this Cocks album that's coming out in September is the best thing I've ever done in 30 years in the studio. I'm really excited about it. So, I promised them that I might fly in for a cameo thing for a city or two or something like that. I'm not gonna tour or put together a band. Buck Satan will not tour.

Gotta ask, obviously, what your thoughts and hopes are going into the next election. At least you don't have to worry about Bush, right?

Yeah, thank God for that. It's not just Bush, it's the whole administration. It's the whole malaise of the country. I mean, everything that guy has ever touched has turned to shit. How do you buy an oil company in Texas and go bankrupt? That's just like you're a retard, man. You buy the Texas Rangers and all of a sudden they're the worst team in baseball for the next six years. He takes over the country and all of a sudden we're hated by everyone and the economy is falling apart and people are getting killed and blown up. Everything that guy touches -- he's just a fuckin' ... he's a plague. He's a plague and a blight on our society. So, good riddance to him and Cheney, Rumsfeld and all the other fuckin' idiots, and Ashcroft and that whole little evil team that he put together. I didn't set out to do three Bush records, trust me, it's just that us idiots kept voting him in.

Yeah, how did that happen?

I figured that after one record, Houses of the Mole, he'd either be impeached or beheaded or something ... and then he got re-elected! So, I did another record. Then, finally the tide started turning in 2006 with some of the congressional elections, but everyone just has Bush fatigue right now. We're just counting the days, holding our breath. Just go away! As far as the rest of them -- they're all corrupt bastards. Even though Obama is probably the least corrupt of the three, they'll get to him, too. It's just the Washington way. It's like a fuckin' cancer there. It's the lesser of whatever evils, but I tell ya, it can't get worse no matter what because policies have to change. There's no doubt cause this just can't go on. No matter who gets in there -- it will either be superficially or cosmetically different, at least. Although it's still really just run by the insiders and lobbyists. I basically hold my nose and pull the lever and vote. You should vote, but there's a lot of holding your nose involved.

At least there's no one in his family running.

I was basically a Kucinich guy just because his wife is so hot and he's such a little troll that he must be packin' 18 inches down there or something. You gotta vote for a guy that's that self-assured. Now, I think I'm probably gonna go for the undercover brother because Rush Limbaugh called him a "sleeper Muslim cell." (laughs) I'm figuring, you know what, maybe that's what this country needs. Just to really shake it up, let's get a Muslim sleeper cell as our new president.

At least people wouldn't hate us so much.

Exactly! (laughs) Not only that, we wouldn't have to worry about other people blowing us up, because our own president would be blowing us up ... cause he's a sleeper cell!

Is there any one moment in the last 30 years that stands out in your mind?

I think the best moment in the last 30 years was kicking heroin, cold turkey. [Withdrawl] lasted about a week, but it's the best thing I ever did.

Congratulations on that again. I interviewed you a couple of years ago shortly after that for the Animositisomina tour. It was right after that.

Yep. Did you notice that my output increased considerably? Instead of an album every three years; last year, I wound up doing seven albums, producing Prong, Watchers, False Icons, wrote a Revolting Cocks record, did the Cover Up record and did the Ministry record and managed to fit a soundtrack into that. It's coming out next September for a horror movie. So, all of the sudden I'm not living on Dealer Standard Time anymore, waiting for some idiot to show up with my medication. So, it's good, you can get a lot of shit done.

I gotta ask -- what do you hope the band will be remembered for when it's all said and done? Do you want to be remembered for all the anti-Bush stuff?

I just think the ... it's just a whole body of work. I'm not thinking that way now because, like I said, I've got a whole bunch of other projects lined up. Maybe 10 years from now, sitting on a rocking chair on my porch with my dogs, I'll reminisce, but right now, I'm really excited about the next thing I'm gonna be working on.

Sounds good. I'm looking forward to the future stuff. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me.

You got it, man.

Thanks a lot.

Take care, Jeff.

Bye.

Bye.

The C U LaTouR with Ministry will be at Tremont Music Hall with Meshuggah and Hemlock on Thursday, April 24. Tickets are $35.