Al Jourgensen Leaves Behind Road for Pure Studio Satisfaction

Now that he's no longer touring (with the exception of a few one-off shows), Al Jourgensen is able to spend most of his time writing and recording at his home studio complex in El Paso, Texas. At least that's the way it usually is. For much of the summer he was stuck in the 13th Planet compound preparing the latest Revolting Cocks lineup -- which consists of Sin Joshua Bradford, Sin Quirin, Clayton Worbeck, Aaron Rossi and Murv Douglas -- for the rigors of the road

"A couple of them are Canadian people, and they're kind of rookies, so we kind of had to let them know what the hell was in store for them," Jourgensen tells Noisecreep. "They're all talented, but it's like, 'Dude, what do you do if a transsexual comes to your room and she has a d--- that's bigger than you?' See, these guys would just freak out if that happened. For the rest of us it would be like, 'Awesome. Let's party.' I'm just trying to teach them important stuff, the life support stuff."

With his students finally out of the classroom and out on the LubricaTour, Jourgensen can finally get serious again about new projects. First to come will be his debut solo album, which he's writing with Mark Thwaite, who has worked with the Mission UK and Peter Murphy. The disc is tentatively scheduled for release next summer.

"It's definitely not metal. It's pretty poppy stuff," say Jourgensen. "It's not me yelling about George Bush. It's more like The The crossed with Nick Cave -- kind of emotional and whiny. It's gonna freak some people out, but we like it and think it's pretty cool."

Lest headbangers lose faith in Jourgensen's metal craftsmanship, he plans to follow up his non-metal album with one of his heaviest offerings to date, a collaboration with Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison, which will likely either be called J Vs. J or Alien Vs. Predator. Jordison, a longtime Ministry fan, played drums with the band during its 2006 MasterBaTour.

"He's really great. And he's stoked about doing this, which I'm really excited about," Jourgensen says. "So that'll definitely be more of a metal album. And then we've got a couple more Revco records, and after that we'll see what happens."

Regardless of how well the Jordison collaboration turns out, Jourgensen insists there's no way he's gonna be promoting the record on tour. "Man, when I was growing up, I never wanted to be Robert Plant. I always wanted to be Jimmy Page," he explains. "And now I got my castle and my studio, so I just do Jimmy Page stuff. I don't want to wear hiphuggers and go out and f--- chicks and sing in a band. I wanna be behind the curtain, and it's what I wanted to do since I was a kid."

Jourgensen admits that he had lots of fun, crazy times touring with Ministry and Revolting Cocks in the '90s, but now that he's clean and creaky, he just wants to stay home and do what he loves without worrying about where he can get a sandwich at four in the morning.

"I got stuck in the Robert Plant role for a while, having to be the frontman for some rock band. This is way better," he says. "This is just cool. I stay home. I've got my nice little compound and we just do our own thing. And the neighbors even like us because they're all happy that their kids found out I moved in next door to them. Their kids are all college age, and they actually come home from spring break now to see their parents just so they can see weird Uncle Al next door. The cops love us, too. We bought them a bunch of bulletproof vests last year. So we're not troublemakers anymore. We're perfectly happy."