Tobias Forge reveals the dark side of anonymity in Ghost

The difficulty of trying to hide your identity while leading a well-known band has been made clear by Ghost leader Tobias Forge. Despite the occult metal band Ghost‘s explosive popularity, the singer/multi-instrumentalist, who fronts the band in a mask and has gone by multiple “Papa” monikers throughout their existence, remained completely mysterious until 2017. When four of his former backing musicians, or “nameless ghouls,” sued him over a payment dispute, his identity became public knowledge. Forge considers the steps he took to conceal his identity and looks in a recent interview with Planet Rock, claiming that they caused “uncomfortable” feelings in those around him.

It did make life easier. Because, before that, we had to put in a lot of extra effort in order for me to not be visible. And it did create a few image-keeping upsides but a lot of practical downsides. It was just uncomfortable. It made people feel uncomfortable. It made for a lot of misunderstandings and a lot of… it was just making life hard. Before I was outed and started doing interviews like this [out-of-character], I didn’t feel completely anonymous. Post-2017, I don’t feel super famous. So, that transgression, or crossing that moment and outspokenly setting my name to things, it did not mean that everybody started recognising me.

He continued explaining that he had to reveal his role to his family.

It’s surprisingly important for everyone to know what you do. Generally people don’t care unless you refuse them to know. And if you refuse them to know, they will really care what you do. We had to tell Mum, basically, what we do. To begin with, it wasn’t really that important. Whatever we did was not something that everyone was interested in in the first place, Mum included.

Upcoming shows:

Apr 15: Manchester AO Arena
Apr 16: Glasgow OVO Hydro
Apr 19: London The O2
Apr 20: Birmingham Utilita Arena
Apr 22: Antwerp Sportpaleis, Belgium
Apr 23: Frankfurt Festhalle, Germany
Apr 24: Munich Olympiahalle, Germany
Apr 26: Lyon LDLC Arena, France
Apr 27: Toulouse Zenith Metropole, France
Apr 29: Lisbon MEO Arena, Portugal
Apr 30: Madrid Palacio Vistalegre, Spain
May 03: Zurich AG Hallenstadion, Switzerland
May 04: Milan Unipol Forum, Italy
May 07: Berlin Uber Arena, Germany
May 08: Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands
May 10: Lodz Atlas Arena, Poland
May 11: Prague O2 Arena, Czech Republic
May 13: Paris Accor Arena, France
May 14: Oberhausen Rudolph Weber Arena, Germany
May 15: Hannover ZAG Arena, Germany
May 17: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark
May 20: Tampere Nokia Arena, Finland
May 22: Linköping Saab Arena, Sweden
May 23: Sandviken Göransson Arena, Sweden
May 24: Oslo Spektrum, Norway
Jul 09: Baltimore CFG Bank Arena, MD
Jul 11: Atlanta State Farm Arena, GA
Jul 12: Tampa Amalie Arena, FL
Jul 13: Miami Kaseya Center, FL
Jul 15: Raleigh PNC Arena, NC
Jul 17: Cleveland Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, OH
Jul 18: Pittsburgh PPG Paints Arena, PA
Jul 19: Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center, PA
Jul 21: Boston TD Garden, MA
Jul 22: New York Madison Square Garden, NY
Jul 24: Detroit Little Caesars Arena, MI
Jul 25: Louisville KFC Yum! Center, KY
Jul 26: Nashville Bridgestone Arena, TN
Jul 28: Grand Rapids Van Andel Arena, MI
Jul 29: Milwaukee Fiserv Forum, WI
Jul 30: St Louis Enterprise Center, MO
Aug 01: Rosemont Allstate Arena, IL
Aug 02: Saint Paul Xcel Energy Center, MN
Aug 03: Omaha CHI Health Center, NE
Aug 05: Kansas City T-Mobile Center, MO
Aug 07: Denver Ball Arena, CO
Aug 09: Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena, NV
Aug 10: San Diego Viejas Arena, CA
Aug 11: Phoenix Footprint Center, AZ
Aug 14: Austin Moody Center ATX, TX
Aug 15: Fort Worth Dickies Arena, TX
Aug 16: Houston Toyota Center, TX
Sep 24: Mexico City Palacio De Los Deportes