Metal axe-man Mike Scaccia has been at the forefront of heavy guitar for nearly 30 years. He’s best known as a core member of the band Ministry, where he played an influential role in inventing the “industrial metal” genre. Led by frontman Al Jourgensen, the band’s pioneering blend of metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizers, and distorted vocals came together in a compelling mix that has influenced countless bands since. Before that, Mike was a founding member of Rigor Mortis, another innovative group that combined horror/gore film themes with thrash metal.

I recently interviewed Mike for a BOSS Tone Radio podcast, where we talked about his long career and the BOSS and Roland gear he’s used since the start. Mike also spoke about his favorite new BOSS acquisition, the eBand JS-8. He absolutely loves it for keeping up his chops and developing new ideas, praising it as “probably the most brilliant thing to date for guitar players.” To listen to the complete discussion and clips of his music, visit www.BossUS.com/podcasts.

The following are excerpts from our conversation.

You’ve been in the band Ministry for about 20 years. But first, I’d like to go farther back and ask you about Rigor Mortis, the band you formed in 1983. Way back then, you guys combined horror and metal, which nowadays is huge.

It was kind of a strange situation; I lived in Arlington, Texas, at the time. I think I was 18. I was playing my guitar really loud, and this little metal kid came banging on my door decked out with black leather and spikes—the whole early metal Slayer look. [He said he had] a killer bass player and drummer, and asked if I wanted to come play with them.

At that first jam session we did “Another Piece of Meat” by the Scorpions; it sunk and played so awesome, and I freaked out because I’d never played with such intensity with other people. So we clicked and stuck together and we just kept playing and playing and playing.

I grew up loving horror movies. When I was eight years old, my parents took me to see The Exorcist. [Coming] from a strong Catholic family, I was frightened for years. I was amazed at the fear that it put into me. I’m a firm believer that [fear] gives you imagination, energy, and creativity. And the music in those movies…all that music was such an influence on not only my playing, but the rest of the guys in the band [as well]. I would always steal riffs from those songs. I would speed ’em up or do ’em backwards. It was such an influence on me.

We sent our demo to every independent label on the planet and they all hated it. So, for the hell of it, we started sending it to the major labels, [and they] started freaking out. At that time in Dallas, the music scene was growing; there was such a variety and intensity of music coming out of there that the record companies were flocking. Out of the blue, this girl from Capitol Records, Rachel Matthews, came down and offered us $200,000 to do our first record. That’s how it all started.

Let’s talk about Ministry. In 1989, you joined Al Jourgensen (Ministry founder and singer) for The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste tour. How did you meet those guys, and how did you end up in the band?

I met Al in 1986. His sound engineer was this guy named Dave Ogilvie. The A&R girl who signed me wanted him to produce a record [for Rigor Mortis]. I met Al [through him] and we just became best friends.

He called me after I did my second Rigor Mortis record and said, “I’m doing this tour, and I would really like you to come along.” And I was like, “Yeah man, of course.” I did that tour and the rest is history. I got asked to join right after that, and we’re still playing together.

I remember discovering you guys while I was teaching at Musicians Institute. I totally got interested in the things you guys were doing, including the insane, driving guitar riffs and using all those samples. How did you guys come up with this formula?

When Al called me, he basically said, “I want to bring in your guitar and mix it in with the samplers and all my insanity. I want to mix your insanity with my insanity, and I think we’ll be on to something.” He was right, because we spawned a lot of bands: we spawned Nine Inch Nails, we spawned Korn, we spawned Limp Bizkit…you name it, man. All those bands like that—I don’t care what they say.

Combining metal and sampling was a new style at the time, and it was later coined “industrial metal.”

Right. I’ve got to tell you, though—I’m a very old-school guitar player. I grew up on Les Paul, Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry, Billy Gibbons, Jimi Hendrix, and Frank Marino. But I was really mad as hell the first time I was in Guitar Player [magazine]. They labeled me the “Industrial Metal Guitar God.” [Laughs.]

That’s what you get for being in a cutting-edge band. I’d never heard samples like that with metal—it was completely amazing. And you had those massive, chunking riffs going on.

It was a pretty wild ride and I’m very proud of it.

How did you trigger samples during Ministry’s live shows?

Well, we never used tape live—ever. Everything was played. We used samplers, and our keyboard player would trigger all the samples himself through a keyboard. We had some amazing drummers over the years; they had to be spot on. We were a very tight band. If anybody ever got off, everybody would get off.

Let’s talk about gear. You’re a Les Paul guy, right?

I love Les Pauls. Al hates ’em. I love ’em. [Laughs.]

You were playing a Les Paul back in the era when everybody switched to the Eddie Van Halen [modified-Strat] style guitars.

I was with Ibanez for about eight years. I had some really nice custom-made guitars that Chris Kelly and Mike Woodby over at Ibanez did for me. I would use those live, but in the studio I was always using Gibson guitars. I love Gibson guitars—I think they’re the best. I love SGs, Les Pauls, Vs, Explorers…I learned on an Explorer. I was an Explorer guy for years, but for the last 15 years it’s been Les Pauls.

I heard you play Budda amps now.

I love Budda amps, man. You know, when I got off the Rio Grande Blood tour, I went to work for Gibson for about four years to learn all about guitar making, tones, woods, and stuff like that. I got into amps as well, because I went to work for Budda for almost a year [after that]. I just wanted to learn how to create tones and what created my tones.

Over the years, have you had any favorite pedals?

When the Roland GP-8 [multi-effects] came out, I was one of the first guys to get it, and I used that thing on every recording I did up until 10 years ago. I turned Al onto those things. He went out and bought 10 of them.

For folks who don’t know, the GP-8 was the predecessor to the current BOSS GT series. The GP-8 was a rackmount unit with eight different effects, while the GT series are floor units.

We still have ’em.

Would you connect them directly into the console, or would you plug them into an amp and then mic it?

We would plug it into an amp—it would work great. Of course, times change and you move on to other stuff. Nowadays I use stompboxes: I use the BOSS delays, EQs, chorus, and flanger, and then I use a Budda wah pedal.

Which delay pedal do you use?

The DD-7. I love it. Right now I use two of those, a [BF-3] flanger, a [TU-2] tuner, and my wah. That’s it in my board right now—pretty simple.

Do you set the two delays to different rates?

Yes. I have a long delay on one and the other one’s a slap. In Rigor Mortis, the slap’s on all the time (depending on the venue), and I’ll put the long delay on the solos. Of course, Ministry is a whole other setup; I pretty much have to have pedals for each song.

Is there any other BOSS gear that you especially like?

I actually just hooked up with the eBand. It’s been a savior to me. I’m doing a country record right now with Al. This eBand took my guitar playing into a whole new direction. [It] has such true tones and true sounds in there, I can’t believe it. It’s really helped me practice and perfect a lot of things I couldn’t do before.

Do you use the built-in jam tracks?

I love those. I love those to death because you can go from the jazz tracks to the blues tracks…and the ballads are awesome. I was actually playing with the soul ballad just before you called. I will go off on that for hours. I can sit there and practice all my lead runs. I can practice all the keys, of course. It’s just a great thing.

The thing that I like about it is that you never have to stop and rewind. Even on a CD or an MP3 player, when it gets to the end, you have to rewind.

Not only that, it sounds so true. It sounds like you’re in a studio. I just did a Rigor Mortis tour a couple months ago and I took the thing with me. I think the eBand is probably the most brilliant thing to date for guitar players.

It’s just a perfect practice station. I like to take studio tracks that I’m working on and bounce them to disk as WAV files and put them on a memory stick. I’ll plug that into eBand, and then have my own tracks loop.

That’s where I was getting ready to go…like I said, I’m doing this country record with Al. It’s called Buck Satan and the 666 Shooters. It’s really cool, dude. We’ve been working on it for about six months now. For the first time in my whole career of playing guitar and recording and writing, I actually have to write out my solos for this stuff. eBand actually helps me do that. This thing is so guitar-player-friendly it’s ridiculous.

Do you have any advice for young guitar players who are trying to figure out what to do?

I love to play, and it’s all about practicing to me; I’ve always been into that. If you have a true passion [for playing], I think you’ll be okay. It’s all about having patience and timing.

Any last words about BOSS?

I love Roland and BOSS products, dude. I’ve used them my entire career, and they are roadworthy, they stand up, and they add such nice texture to your tones. I think everybody’s tried to rip ’em off and they still do, but you guys are always ahead of the game and I will use ’em forever.