Al Jourgensen has lived a life alright. The Ministry leader invented industrial rock and his shadow looms large over Nine Inch Nails, Dillinger Escape Plan and more. He also managed to get through two decades of heroin addiction and come through the other side, kicking his drug habit in 2019. In the early 90s, Ministry were blowing up big and Jourgensen found himself making lofty new pals, not least famed Beat author William Burroughs and psychedelic drug champion Timothy Leary. He told Metal Hammer’s James Gill how this unlikely friendship came to be.
“Warner Brothers weren’t going to release [Ministry’s 1992 album] Psalm 69 because we’d sampled some William Burroughs,” he recalled. “James Grauerholz [Burroughs’ Manager, and long term companion] heard that the new Ministry album was being delayed because of this, and called me saying, ‘No one’s even contacted us. You can use anything you want. In fact, why don’t you come and work with him?’”
