"So they wanted to put together a package. I was like, 'No way, man.' We just had a greatest-hits thing on Warner Bros. three years ago. The only way I'm going to allow you to do this is to at least let me rework some of the songs to make it an entity on its own instead of another rehash just to say, 'Well look how old this guy is.'"

"Rantology" takes some of Ministry's biggest hits and offers updated mixes of "Wrong," "N.W.O," "Stigmata," "Jesus Built My Hotrod"; alternate mixes of "Waiting Warp City," "Bad Blood," "Animosity Unsung"; straightforward tracks "No W Redux," "The Great Satan" and "Bloodlines"; and live versions of "Psalm 69," "Thieves" and "The Fall."

"The Great Satan" is a teaser to a new album Ministry is currently working on that is set for release April 13.

I can't believe it's been 25 years since Ministry was formed.

How 'bout it, man? I'm long in the tooth and gray in the beard.

Was it kind of fun to remix the old hits?

No, actually, it's not. I have this motto that my best song has yet to be written. So, to stop and backtrack was kind of weird. A couple of them were kind of fun. Some of them were kind of strange. Once I'm done with a record, I never listen to it again. It's like giving a baby up for adoption. You give it to the record companies and they raise it. You're just a surrogate mom. It was kind of strange to go back. I remember some of the things that were going on in the studio. You're remembering places, names, this and that. It was kind of weird. In the end, I think it was worthwhile doing.

Which songs were particularly fun to do?

I always enjoy doing "N.W.O." because we have two generations of Bush on there singing a little love duet. That was kind of fun. I'm in the middle of doing a new Ministry album. To include the new one ("The Great Satan") on there, that was kind of fun. I'm busy. I'm crazy as hell right now. I just finished the Revolting Cocks [ tickets ] record [on Sept. 25]. I'm about a third of the way into the new Ministry album, which will be done by Christmas. Plus this release. It's kind of weird. I don't know which one to talk about.

Tell me about the new Revolting Cocks record.

That's coming out Feb. 14. That's coming out on our new label. We started a new label, just like the old Wax Trax label we had. It's called 13th Planet. That'll be the first release on 13th Planet. It's called "Cocked and Loaded." It's got a lot of crazy people playing on it--Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers sings on three [songs], Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys sings on, like, three. There's Rick Nielson of Cheap Trick playing guitar. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top playing guitar on a few songs. It's a lot of crazy people

That's definitely a motley crew.

It's definitely a motley crew. It's a bunch of middle-aged men being paid to be juvenile delinquents.

The Revolting Cocks are opening your summer tour next year. That's going to be quite a night for you.

I will need an oxygen tank at the end of every night. I am the Revolting Cock. I know that Jello has been on the case with Ministry tours. He does his little hit and run. He does a few of the large songs. Gibby is definitely coming with us. Billy and Rick, who knows where they'll pop up.

You must be going out of your mind doing all of these projects.

It's fun. It's definitely fun. There's a period in my life when I was pretty sedentary and in a drug-induced coma, a.k.a. Karen Ann Quinlan singing for Ministry or something. It's fun again. If it wasn't fun, I wouldn't be doing it.

What can we expect with the new Ministry album?

The new song "The Great Satan" on "Rantology," that's probably the slow love ballad on the Ministry album. So far it's pretty brutal.

Is the album politically charged, such as the song "N.W.O."?

No, no, no. It's over-the-top politically charged.

There's a lot to rant about these days.

These days, yeah, and it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. I'm pretty pissed off, and it's so easy to write when you're pissed.

Did you record your album at your house in Texas?.

Ninety percent, and then I go to mix it at this studio in El Paso.

It must be hard to keep all your projects straight.

It's pretty strange, especially when the tour's already booked for next summer. I used to not know what I was doing 10 minutes from now, let alone a year from now.

Why did you go ahead and announce the tour now?

Well, last time, we had a lot of kids that were mad because tickets went on sale so late for the Ministry tour, and they didn't get a chance to go, they couldn't plan around it, blah blah blah. Plus, we haven't toured with the Cocks in, like, 15 years, so we wanted to make sure there's no excuses. We wanted everyone to come out and enjoy the circus.

Are you going to play the old songs with the new mixes during the tour?

[After] 20 years of playing a song, we try to do it different every single song. I can't recall how many times I played "Stigmata."

So you are going to play "Stigmata" and some of the "little club hits," to quote the last time I talked to you.

Probably as an encore type of things. We'll probably do a medley of seven or eight. My best song's yet to be written.

Do you write songs especially for Ministry or the Revolting Cocks, or do you just kind of write songs and see where they fit in?

Pretty much the latter. Sometimes you'll sit down and write something specially. I just go in and bulk record. I think at one point I had nine bands going with different singers in each band. I just go in and write, and see where the chips fall.

Why did you decide now was the time for a Revolting Cocks record?

We had four or five songs sitting on the shelf for a long time that were really good, but they certainly wouldn't fit in to a Ministry record or anything. I finally decided to get off my ass and actually finish it. I hate leaving unfinished business. This stuff is great. It's the party record of the century. It's complete party, I'm telling you. It's kind of like, not at all like rap, but it reminds me of the first Beastie Boys release. It's a complete party.