The band Ministry may have had humble beginnings, playing Clive Davis-penned new wave and synth pop in the 1980s. But by the '90s, Ministry was already well on the way to building its reputation as one of the most influential industrial metal bands of all time.

Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen joins to talk about his new tell-all memoir, Ministry: The Lost Gospels According To Al Jourgensen, in which he details the band's progression -- as well as plenty of tales of substance abuse, band in-fighting, and near-death experiences.

This segment originally aired on July 30, 2013.

Interview Highlights

Al Jourgensen, on being "clinically dead" three times:

There was one theory put forth by a journalist recently. I have a lot of friends that have died prematurely, and a lot of friends that have died of natural causes. I've lost a lot of people over the years. This journalist basically recommended to me that God keeps me around because I amuse him. He keeps giving me cat lives. I'm on three, I've got six to go. I don't want to hit nine. Trust me, I don't want to be a cat. I'll settle at three and I'll leave it at that. 

On working with co-author Jon Wiederhorn:

I had a long and trusted friend that used to work at MTV, Jon Wiederhorn, who's interviewed me, I don't know, 15 times. I kind of trusted him with it. Basically my wife just said, "Look, every time we go to a party or social event you tell the same old drunken, drugged out stories. Why don't you just put it down in a book? Then hand out a pamphlet at the beginning of each social event and just sit in the corner and be quiet and drink your vodka." I took her advice.

I got Jon to come out, we'd spend a week completely hammered with tape recorder rolling. Then he'd spend the next four weeks doing due diligenge -- getting witnesses to make sure it wasn't a figment of my imagination. 

On putting together a record while doing a lot of drugs: 

Not a lot of people were allowed razorblades while in my condition. All those early records: Psalm 69, The Land Of Rape And Honey, The Mind is A Terrible Thing To Taste, all those were done by me literally doing a boatload of drugs, with a razor-blade in my hand, and a two-track machine and just splicing up tape.

I learned that from William Burroughs, Naked Lunch, you can't get more splice and dice than that. That was the '90s. The '60s and '90s were like the Wild West of the music industry. Just rampant abuse and enabling and everything else. Things are obviously on a much tighter budget now.