Al Jourgensen, the constant member of the Ministry, recently talked about the ’80s rock scene and mentioned Mötley Crüe. He stated that he wasn’t interested in their songs, and they weren’t for him.
Ministry was founded by Al Jourgensen in 1981 when the American rock and metal music scene was dominated by Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Mötley Crüe. Ministry’s style ranged from rock to many metal subgenres but was mainly known as an industrial metal band. Naturally, their sound differed from their contemporaries.
While looking back on their early years, the musician reflected on whether he enjoyed the music of his contemporaries. In a recent interview, he talked about Mötley Crüe, and even though he had performed with them, he admitted that their songs weren’t his style and he wouldn’t listen to them.
Al compared Mötley Crüe with Ministry and said that his band is much more than them when it comes to arena rock. He continued to say that he performed with Crüe and thinks the members are lovely. Even though Jourgensen has nothing against them, he emphasized that they are not his style, whereas ’70s bands like ZZ Top and Foghat were the ones truly enjoyed.
Here is the question asked in the interview:
“Back in the ’80s, were you into any arena rock or hair metal stuff?”
Al Jourgensen replied:
“No, not at all. I didn’t know any of them. To this day, outside of ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ or something, I couldn’t even name you a Mötley Crüe song. That’s not something that I would listen to. I’m sure it’s really great and all that, but when I say arena rock, I don’t mean that this album’s going to be a hair-band f*cking album. I mean, it’s Ministry, right?
I’m just saying that the chord progressions and the sound of it are just much more… we don’t go off on eclectic tangents as much. These are hard-hitting beats that are in your face, and you could visualize 20,000 people knowing the lyrics to the songs and chanting along. So the music lends itself more towards a larger stadium atmosphere.
I’ve met them – we played with them in Australia and this and that, and they were a nice bunch of folks. But I listen to a lot of different kinds of stuff than that. I pretty much kind of quit listening to that kind of stuff back in. It shows my age, but back in the ’70s. ZZ Top, Foghat, those were my hair-metal bands, if you will.”
Mötley Crüe’s sound was recently criticized by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. Vedder had stated that he hated Crüe’s music, which sparked a feud between him and Nikki Sixx. Crüe’s Sixx replied and called Pearl Jam’ boring‘ in return. It seems like musicians in the scene didn’t necessarily appreciate Crüe’s music in the ’80s, and they are starting to voice it.
