Guest Blog: Ministry’s Al Jourgensen Talks Hockey

I’ve been a big hockey fan since I was six and my dad got season tickets to the games. That was the Bobby Hull, Tony Esposito era when they were a great team. We wound up with seats in the 300 section because my dad was a blue-collar guy and that’s all he could afford. So we were at the top level.

Then, when [Ministry’s 1988 album] The Land of Rape and Honey came out and started selling records, I actually bought my own season tickets and got down to the 200 level. By the time [1992’s] Psalm 69 came out, I was able to afford 100 level seats. And then I struck gold.

I met the grandson of the owner of the team, who has owned the Blackhawks since the 1920s, and we hit if off. He became my best friend in the world and was the best man at my wedding. So now, I’ve got a Hawks connection forever. After I met him, I started getting behind the bench and owner’s box seats. Then, they asked me to write the Chicago Blackhawks theme to be played during the games and that’s awesome. It guarantees me behind-the-bench box seats for the rest of my life. That’s basically the tradeoff I’m gonna make.

So, now I make my yearly pilgrimage to Chicago Stadium at least once a year to check out some Hawks home games And even though I live down in Texas, I’ve got a whole deluxe satellite hookup so I can follow everything pertaining to the Hawks. Seriously. That’s my whole social life – subscribing to cable and following the Blackhawks like a stalker.

So, why do I like hockey so much? That’s easy. It’s like the WWF meets chess, or European soccer with more goals. It’s a worldwide sport with actual strategy and absolutely needless and senseless violence. You can’t get any better than that.

I know there are still a lot of American sports fans who don’t follow hockey, but I can’t understand how someone who loves football wouldn’t like hockey. I mean, c’mon, hockey’s got way more action, way more violence and it’s a much faster paced game. There’s not 40 seconds in between each play. There’s like .4 seconds in between each play. You actually have to think while you watch.

And you can learn some important life lessons from hockey as well. For instance, if you’re a musicians, hockey can inspire you to take an aggressive stance with the major corporations – i.e. Warner,. Bros and Sanctuary, which I’ve been on – and just slam them against the boards. Don’t let them get into your zone and clear out your crease.

Sadly, for the last 10 years, watching the Blackhawks has not been very therapeutic because, let’s face it, they’ve absolutely stunk. But now they’re got some really great talent, a lot of desire and a great coach and they’re kicking ass. People are starting to come back to the United Center to see them and Chicago’s becoming a hockey town again, so I could not be happier. And right now, hockey is much more than therapeutic. I base my entire schedule around Hawks games. And the Hawks are finally going to be in the playoffs again this year, so the season should be going into May, and that means that, hopefully, when we end the Ministry tour, the team should be in some sort of playoff mode and I can catch some home games. We’re gonna be camped out in Chicago for the whole last week of the tour, which should present lots of opportunities.

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