Ghost Singer Names His ‘Big 4’ of Live Concert Performances

Who are the “Big 4” acts that influenced Ghost‘s Tobias Forge when it comes to putting on the dynamic and theatrical stages shows he’s consistently provided with his band?

The Ghost leader shared with Full Metal Jackie for her weekend radio show the four significant live shows from his youth that definitely stuck with him and left an impact. And the list starts with one of the all-time greats, The Rolling Stones.

“At some point in the 80s, I saw the film Let’s Spend the Night Together. For a long time, that was one of my favorite things to watch because it was just so amazing. This absolutely awesome band playing a big stadium, and then like midway through the film, they just sort of switch and they’re playing indoors in an arena. It was just like this great film, very influential,” said Forge, who also shouted out the band’s Steel Wheels tour as a favorite as well.

“That is by far the coolest staging I’ve seen in my entire life. That is still  the pinnacle. Especially the Steel Wheels tour that they did in 1989, the fall and winter of 1989, that was the big tour of the U.S and I remember seeing videos from that,” says Forge. “I remember taping a show that was live from Barcelona, 1990. And I think I paused, freeze framed the entire film through the entire film because I wanted to draw the stage because it was so cool.”

Who else made the cut? He gives his answers within the chat below.

Tobias also spoke with Jackie about the more personal nature of the new Skeleta album, his touchtones for the ’70s rock influence that’s invaded Ghost’s music and what his concert experiences were like growing up that’s inspired his “no phones” policy on the band’s current touring.

Tobias also opens up about his introduction to Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath and what it means to be playing the Back to the Beginning show this summer.

Check out more of the chat below.

It’s Full Metal Jackie and I’m so excited to welcome to the show Mr. Tobias Forge of Ghost. The band has a new album, Skeleta, and this great new song, “Satanized,” and of course, the massive world tour this year. Tobias, I know this album takes a more introspective approach, writing more about the human experience through this journey. Were there any takeaways of things you learned about yourself and how you interact with the world around you?

Oh, I wish. I just had a long laundry list of that. I guess so, probably. Writing, especially if you’re writing sort of from the heart, can be therapeutical in a way. Sometimes you write things that you don’t even understand yourself until you sort of grasp the concept later. And if that means really learning something about yourself or if it means learning something about the ways of the world is very hard to. But of course you mean you learn something about yourself by mirroring the world and how you perceive it, which I think this has been an exercise.

I don’t know if this answered your question, but it sounded good.

Ghost, ‘Satanized”

Tobias, one of the great things with Ghost has been to watch the evolution of your music. I feel like early on it was coming much more from a metal place, but with recent albums, it’s going more into a 70s hard rock vibe, and I’m totally feeling that more with this record. What has led you down that path? And who are some of the touchstones of your 70s era?

Music listening, love.

I think I’ve always had a ’70s touch to my writing. When I say ’70s, I mean one of my, if not the first favorite band I had was KISS. And that was not the ’80s KISS. It was ’70s KISS.

I remember the first time I ever learned how to write something was some lady that was taking care of me and a few other kids and the daughter in the house taught me how to write “Heavens on Fire” because that was a big hit at the time. But KISS was definitely like a huge influence on me.

READ MORE: The Underground Band Tobias Forge First Wanted Ghost to Sound Like

Another ’70s band, a big band at the same time when I was a kid was Sex Pistols and The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle film. Also all my favorite bands of the time had some roots into the 70s. So I’m equally influenced by punk rock of the 70s to AOR, complete adult oriented rock, grown up divorce dad rock, well played, well sung, well written by men with mustaches and beards and two youthful kick ass punk misfits.

I think that that’s basically part of the mixture that is Ghost. It’s Misfits meets Boston, like that sort of weird or where grit meets polish.

We’re talking about the new Ghost music. The first piece of music from this album is the single “Satanized,” which comes with an interesting video. You always seem to be at the forefront of trying different things. Can we talk about how you came across the Satanizer and finding a way to make this a more interactive experience for fans watching the video?

Oh, my answer to that is so boring because I’m not tech savvy at all. That was basically handed from someone who was just like, “Do you guys want to try this? And I was like, what is it? And when I was told what it was, I was like, “That would work really well in a video that we are doing.” There was the synchronicity there.

I am myself not very tech savvy at all. Actually the contrary, the opposite of that. But I’ve understood that there is an ever, ever so thirsty need of mankind to do things like that. And I happen to find that one effect, that little concept that was actually quite entertaining.

Simply put, seeing Ghost is very much a concert experience. The theatrics and presentation go above and beyond what you see at many concerts. And I’m sure there are acts you saw growing up that only strengthened your love for rock and metal and the possibilities they provide. Who would you say are the big four acts or whatever of putting “the show” into concerts?

You mean what influenced me?

Yes.

When I was little, one of my favorite bands, if not the favorite band that I had was Rolling Stones. And at some point in the 80s, I saw the film Let’s Spend the Night Together. For a long time, that was one of my favorite things to watch because it was just so amazing.

This absolutely awesome band playing a big stadium, and then like midway through the film, they just sort of switch and they’re playing indoors in an arena. It was just like this great film, very influential.

Close to that time, the Rolling Stones made a comeback record called Steel Wheels. And they went out on the Steel Wheels tour. And then a year after it came to Europe, called the Urban Jungle Tour. That is by far the coolest staging I’ve seen in my entire life. That is still  the pinnacle. Especially the Steel Wheels tour that they did in 1989, the fall and winter of 1989, that was the big tour of the U.S and I remember seeing videos from that.

I’m not gonna bore you with saying there was so little footage back then, but for a band then, it was very well documented because they were on the news, they were on TV. But anything I saw with them. I remember taping a show that was live from Barcelona, 1990. And I think I paused, freeze framed the entire film through the entire film because I wanted to draw the stage because it was so cool.

Also around 1989, Pink Floyd was playing in Venice. That was like a direct broadcast on TV. That also had a huge impact on me watching that live show. I think Floyd was also one of my favorite bands when I was that age, like 8 years old.

Iron Maiden, I’ve talked about that show so much – Live After Death, but then Metallica, 1991, when the Black Album came and they had that diamond stage, that is one of the coolest stages. And that cycle was just like this amazing home run.

Tobias, you were talking earlier about some of your influences. I must also just flag that at the time in the early 90s I was 10 years old at the time and throughout most of my life I’ve been very archaeological and backwards striving in my music taste. But there was just this little window when I actually liked something that was going on contemporarily. And that was in the fall of 1991, because that’s when the Black Album came out. Use Your Illusion 1 and 2, Nevermind, Ten with Pearl Jam and a few others. That was just this awesome time.

As a Guns ‘N Roses fan, they also had this stage that was very well represented in the Use Your Illusion cycle that if you look at our staging now, it’s kind of Guns ‘N Roses 1991 because it just looked so cool with all that grated staging and all those weird angles and so there you have it. Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Guns ‘N Roses, Metallica. And with a huge slab of Iron Maiden, 1984-85.

Ghost, “Lachryma”

One of the more interesting things you’re doing this year is the no phones policy at shows. And I know you’ve shared your reasonings why many times over, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to share what it was like seeing shows for you growing up and why you would love to have new generations of fans experience it in that way as well. What did you love about the live concert experience growing up that made it so special for you?

I just for a few minutes spoke about very well documented shows and at the time, because they were basically performed on TV. But I also had the opportunity to see some of these shows as well in real life. Some of them, I’ve never seen any footage of the show that I went to and I saw a lot of bands especially in the ’90s that were magical.

It was magical being there. It was also magically restored and compartmentalized in my head. Many of them or most of them I’ve never seen not even a photo from and those were big shows. I remember seeing Black Sabbath when they were on the reunion tour in 98. I have not seen one single photo of that show. And it’s so magical. It was just this wonderful experience.

I believe, without any knowledge really about how the human psyche works when it comes to sort of recording ability, but I believe that by placing your memory recording ability into a machine, I think you remember less.

I think your brain organ gets less exercise if you don’t use it. I remember less from shows that I’ve seen later than I do shows that I saw prior for some reason. And I don’t even film.

It’s because I’m annoyed by all the cameras all the time. Even when I go to a show, I hate standing in the back, seeing a lot of cameras there. That’s what I want people to enjoy. I hope that people that come to our show manage to tap into their inner recording device where you get that little magical outline, that little filter on it that makes it kind of more glittery than it was. Maybe this is a way for us to just look. Look better because you didn’t film it, so that you might remember it as a better thing.

You asked me about my memories of the past. They are dressed in the fog of haze, the hazy memory veil that sort of makes it more attractive and more fun and more associated with the feeling rather than just a naked representation of exactly how it was might have been.

Tobias, this year also brings a chance for you to perform at the Black Sabbath and Ozzy Back to the Beginning show. Can you speak a bit about your introduction to Ozzy’s music? And if you’ve ever had an interaction with the Osbourne family that stands out.

I’m going to start with my introduction to Ozzy. I grew up in a family with a much older sibling who was a teenager when I was a kid. So I was introduced to not every band on the planet, but definitely like a lot of heavy hitters at a very early age.

Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne was one that I don’t really remember hearing for the first time. They were just a fact in my life. But then of course I had to develop my own record collection and my own perception of everything that was happening and that had happened and then was to come.

Obviously in the ’80s, Ozzy was the bigger rock star, so he was more prevalent in media. I think he was the guy that would come and sell out an arena and have like a big hit single on the radio. Whereas Black Sabbath in  the form that I had grown to love, which was the Ozzy years and the first eight records, that was sort of in the past. Contemporary Black Sabbath in the ’80s was a little bit of hit or miss from my point of view. They weren’t really as eye pleasing and they didn’t grab my attention the same way that Ozzy did.

However, as years progressed and I really started accumulating a record collection and started really diving into bands and towards the end of, let’s say early 90s then I’ve grown to love a lot of the ’80s records. Of course the Dio records, like I love Dio and Black Sabbath.

But I remember when Dehumanizer came out, I loved it. I really loved that Dio was back in Black Sabbath. So back at that point, 1992, I was already a fan of like Black Sabbath without Ozzy again. And I’ve learned to love the Tony Martin records as well, so. So they have had like an enormous impact on me as a totality. I’m talking about all the Tony Iommi records and combined with Ozzy Osbourne records have in some way or form affected me.

But of course, when they’re back together, and especially for the last time, that means a tremendous amount of honor to be welcomed into that forum. But it’s also with a grain of sentiment that touches a little bit on sadness because it might be the last time that ever happened.

Thanks to Ghost’s Tobias Forge for the chat. The Skeleta album is out now and available for purchase. You can stay up to date with the band through their Facebook, X, Instagram,  TikTok, YouTube and Spotify accounts. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show here.