Fireball Ministry

Did You Know?

• The band's name was derived from a public-access TV show in Cincinnati.
• MTV.com described the band's music as possessing 'a musical chemistry between the members... that makes their songs buzz with warmth.'
• The album title Their Rock Is Not Our Rock references Deuteronomy 32:31.

History

Fireball Ministry came together in Cincinnati in the late 1990s, founded by James A. Rota II and Emily Burton. After a move to New York City, the band eventually landed in Los Angeles. In 2000, they played the second day of the "November Dismember" metal festival at the National Orange Show fairgrounds in San Bernardino, California. Despite sharing stages with acts like Danzig, Anthrax, Motörhead, and Slayer, the band struggled with album sales and later adjusted their sound to reach more listeners. Two of their songs, "King" and "Flatline," appeared in the 2003 surfing documentary Billabong Odyssey. Bam Margera also put "King" on his Viva La Bands compilation, and his brother Jess helped arrange a European tour with CKY in 2004. The track "The Broken" was used in the PlayStation 2 wrestling game WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006.

The band cycled through several bassists over the years. Helen Storer played on the 1999 release Où est la Rock?, followed by Fu Manchu's Brad Davis for FMEP in 2001, L7's Janis Tanaka for The Second Great Awakening in 2003, and Systematic's Johny Chow for Their Rock Is Not Our Rock in 2005. That album was cut at Dave Grohl's 606 West studio with producer Nick Raskulinecz. In 2005, Fireball Ministry supported CKY on an Adio Footwear tour. Drummer John Oreshnick took a leave of absence in fall 2006, replaced by Yael (a former bandmate of Chow in My Ruin), but Yael left that winter and Oreshnick returned. Rota eventually became an ordained minister, officiating the weddings of CKY's Matt Deis and Erica Beckmann in November 2005, and Bam Margera and Missy Rothstein in February 2007.