11. Cover Up/Undercover
Two cover albums allowed Jourgensen to pay tribute to the music that had formed him, while perhaps not offering any real challenges.
I was hired by a record company to do cover songs, and I think one of them even got nominated for a Grammy. We did ‘Under My Thumb’ by the Stones and got some kind of nomination [Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2009]. I didn’t go to the awards or anything like that. I never go to those fucking things.
Apparently these got pretty good reviews, and they were a lot of fun to make. There are a bunch of different people playing, just a bunch of old drunk white guys jamming. It took you back to your teenage years. It wasn’t exactly intellectually or emotionally challenging but they’re great party records to throw on, or great driving music.
The label gave me a list of songs to choose, but Lemmy from Motörhead got the same contract before us and he cherry-picked all the good ones for his cover record. I did an Annie Lennox cover of ‘Sweet Dreams’, I did ‘Rehab’ by Amy Winehouse. You should definitely make it a point to listen to them. If I was basing it on sheer likability, these records would probably be in the top four or five. But to me there’s really no intellectual advancement or emotional attachment here. These would be more awesome under the Revolting Cocks name rather than Ministry.
