Ghost Frontman is OK with “Solo Project” Tag
The anonymity and mystique surrounding Ghost has come crumbling down in the past several months as rumors gained steam that frontman Tobias Forge (“Papa Emeritus”) fired the entire band after their fall 2016 U.S. tour, culminating in a full-on lawsuit brought against Forge by several ex-members of the band. Separately, the identities of several ex and current members of the band became public in the process, in addition to those named in the suit.
With the curtain all but ripped down, Forge has been much more candid about the band — and his role in it — in interviews lately. The latest comes from a chat with CBS Philadelphia, in which he addresses all the lineup shuffles of late head on:
“I have been in the band since I started the band. I started writing songs for it in 2006.
“Nowadays there’s a handful of very new members, yeah. But there has been about ten to fifteen people now going in and out of the band, so there’s been a lot of rotation.
“It’s always an inconvenience when you’re changing people in a band. You have to get someone else in there and you have to teach that person from scratch everything. We’re not doing twelve-bar blues here, so it’s not something that you can just pick up on. And luckily for me, since I’ve written most of everything, of the patterns, I can teach anyone coming in, ‘This is how the bass line goes, and this is how the guitar riff goes, and this is how the keyboard goes and this is how the drums go.’ So it’s not very hard for me to make my stamp rub off on anyone coming in and playing that instrument. But that also adds to the friction over the years. Because it’s never really been a band in the classic sense that you have someone who plays his or her instrument and that she or he is the only person in the world that can make it sound like that. People have a tendency to want to feel that they’re very important for something, and if it’s not crucial that they’re there, there will also be a little bit of a friction there.”
Asked whether he sees Ghost as a solo project or as a band, Forge said:
“I actually refer to it as the earlier of the two options. Even though I’ve never wanted it that way, but at the end of the day, that is what it is. So I think it speaks clear for itself. I mean, I started it in 2006, and no one that was ever in the band in 2016 was even on the first record. Call it solo, if you want to, but I call it a project.”
Which is basically what we’ve all been saying since all this drama started. At least now he’s acknowledging it, too, although I’m willing to bet the former members who brought the lawsuit feel very, very differently.
More on the lawsuit as we get it.
Here are Ghost’s headline shows in North America this summer, which are scheduled in between their dates opening for Iron Maiden:
06/06 Albany, NY – The Palace Theatre (feat. Zombi)
06/08 Norfolk, VA – The NorVa (feat. Royal Thunder)
06/10 Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle (feat. Royal Thunder)
06/14 Louisville, KY – The Palace Theater (feat. Royal Thunder)
06/17 Fargo, ND – Fargo Civic Center (feat. Egypt)
06/22 Corpus Christi, TX – The Pavilion at Concrete Street (feat. True Widow)
06/26 Midland, TX – La Hacienda (feat. True Widow)
06/30 Fresno, CA – Rainbow Ballroom (feat. Repulsion)
07/02 San Francisco, CA – The Warfield (feat. Repulsion)
07/08 Denver, CO – The Fillmore (feat. Khemmis)
07/13 Indianapolis, IN – Egyptian Room at Old National Centre (feat. Royal Thunder)
07/14 Fort Wayne, IN – Embassy Theater (feat. Royal Thunder)
07/18 New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall (feat. Astronoid)
07/20 Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore (feat. Astronoid)
[via Blabbermouth]
