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00:00It's Brent Porsche from 93.3 WMMR in Philadelphia here and joining me now is the founder and frontman
00:06and the leader of the multi-platinum selling Grammy award-winning band Ghost, Mr. Tobias
00:11Forge. Hello, sir. Thanks for taking some time to speak with us here at MMR. We missed you.
00:15Thank you very much for having me. How are you? I'm doing well, thanks. How about yourself?
00:20Are you feeling better? I feel better, yeah. I've been down with the sickness.
00:30I've been, yeah, it's been, I've had it like, it feels like a long convalescence simply because I was,
00:38I had three wisdom teeth removed. Oh, no. So that sort of made me horizontal for a while. And,
00:46and, and then after that, I finished it off with a good flu. Oh, good. Back to back. Awesome, man.
00:54Well, it's been a minute since we've spoken, had the great ghost through the Philadelphia area,
00:59but soon, of course, that's all about to change. It was just announced back in October via the clergy
01:04that Ghost is going to be joining us and taking the world by storm with a massive world tour
01:08this year in 2025, including a live ritual here in Philadelphia. That's going to be at the Wells
01:13Fargo Center coming up on Saturday, July 19th. Of course, those tickets are on sale now. We're very
01:18excited to have you back through the area, but it was also just announced that Ghost's sixth psalm is
01:24going to be coming a little bit later on this year, actually about a month or so called
01:28Skeleta. It's on its way. So we're very, very excited about that. Of course, set for a worldwide
01:33release on April 25th via Loma Vista Recordings. The lead single, Satanized, which is going to be
01:39coming out here shortly, is, is a love song of sorts and is sort of being described as Ghost's most
01:46unflinchingly introspective work to date and more of a personal album to you, Tobias. What more can you
01:52tell us about Skeleta come up here? Yeah, I mean, it is a record that, that is, um, introspective
02:01to, to a farther degree, I guess, than, than especially the previous record that I, I, I, just to be,
02:10you know, clear, I, I do believe that most artists usually create a record, a new record based on where
02:19they were on, on the previous one, not as an ant, like an anti, like a counter reaction, but, uh,
02:28usually there's something that you wish to, to, um, achieve that you maybe didn't on the previous,
02:35or you want to change something or, uh, or just fill your, you know, at the end of the day, what,
02:41what, what you're doing is, is basically filling your repertoire with hopefully songs that you
02:46didn't have before. Uh, but thematically, I, I, I, I usually have some sort of thematic
02:53guideline when I write, um, first and foremost for myself in order to make a, you know, a sense of,
03:02of what the new record is. So it's, so it's not too whimsically just about everything at the same
03:08time. Um, but where Impera was, um, very much a, very much a, um, extra, uh, I'm not only extroverted,
03:18but exteriorly, um, reflecting on, on bigger society, social, um, issues and, and, and, uh, and also
03:31like, um, you know, as the, the, the title implies imperial structure, uh, and its ultimate demise,
03:39uh, it didn't feel very productive to continue down that and make an Impera 2, uh, like talking
03:47about the continual demise of, uh, I was more attracted to the idea of this, this record that
03:54was more shining a light in, in, inside and making a record about like healing aspects of, of, of being
04:01a, uh, essentially a human, a human being in whatever structural design. Um, because at the end of the
04:11day, most humans are, are, are surprisingly alike and, um, display the same, um, abilities to, to, to, um,
04:22to sentiments and, um, the, the sentiments are, are usually quite basic. And that idea was
04:29attractive to me, like making a record that, you know, had a song about hope, had a song about hate,
04:36had a song about love, um, acceptance and, you know, like all these things. Yeah. Very cool. And, uh,
04:45the, the first single being Satanized, um, this is obviously the, the new, uh, Papa is being
04:52unveiled here. Papa five perpetual, correct? Yeah. Very cool. And, uh, also I actually saw the music
05:00video for Satanized. It blew my mind. It was so cool to see. Um, of course you, you're in it,
05:05but you're not really yourself. You're, uh, you're a priest in it. Do doing the, the Satanizing
05:11through, through the, the music video itself. Yeah. Well, this is the, this is the funny and,
05:17and sometimes even to me, confusing elements of, of being in this sort of fictional band where
05:23everything is sort of meta meta. We have, we have a ton of songs, Satanized being one where
05:30technically our singer, in this case, Papa, the fifth perpetua is, um, singing, pretending to be a
05:42fictional other person. So anytime that you hear our singer, whomever have sung in the past,
05:51singing the word I, or a song that's in I form, it doesn't mean that it's that character singing
05:59about himself. In this case, same thing that it's the, the Satanized is written in I form from a
06:07perspective of a technically like simply put a religious person who confuses the feeling of being
06:15in love with being possessed by an, on, you know, some earth, unearthly being from another dimension
06:25possessing his, in this case, soul and tearing it apart because that's how it feels.
06:32Gotcha. Gotcha. And he's also been taught that feelings like that is the devil's,
06:37work. Um, so when it comes to making a video for that, it becomes a little weird if, if, if you put
06:48Papa there to sing that song. Sure. And so therefore we, we had to, um, essentially, you know,
07:00get an actor in to serve as the, the, you know, the main character in, in, in the, the, the, the eye
07:10in the eye form. Gotcha. That makes sense. Yeah. And so, uh, with the music video, uh, for the first
07:16time ever, I believe the ghouls are completely unmasked and they kind of, kind of reveal themselves
07:22as the, uh, the, the church band or the, the, the band that's in there and in the church with
07:28everybody. And, uh, one thing that kind of resonated with me, especially towards, uh, the
07:32tail end of the music video was the unveiling of Papa the Fifth Perpetua, uh, and, and the robe
07:39and the papal hat and everything, uh, that came of it. Like I'm getting goosebumps now thinking
07:44about it because such a cool, uh, visual to kind of wrap up the, uh, the first song or the first
07:51single and Satanized and this new, uh, this new being Papa the Fifth Perpetua is really, really
07:57cool. Yeah. That's what we try to do. We might want to, uh, you know, do something as a mundane
08:03as an unveiling a Papa in, in, in the maximalist way of, of, of, of enthusing everybody to believe
08:12that it's, um, uh, you know, uh, as an important event. When you, when you go to unveil these
08:19characters or you're dreaming up the next version of you or the next version of the leader of the
08:25band Ghost, um, is this something that you have thought out like way ahead of time, or is this
08:29something that you kind of come up with as you're going through the recording process or, you know,
08:34when you, how did you come up with Papa the Fifth Perpetua and of course the, the visuals and the
08:39gown and everything that kind of went with it for this particular character? It depends. I mean,
08:44I, my MO, um, isn't linear and it isn't like, uh, every time I come up with something, it's in this
08:52order. It's sometimes I have an idea in the back of my head that, that technically was sort of spawned
09:01two albums ago that, that, that, uh, you know, note to self, like, let's do this thing. And, and it
09:11didn't work, it, it doesn't work out or, or, or there's something, um, disabling that, or it
09:18doesn't, you know, maybe technically works or practically and, and, uh, then you keep it for
09:26as long as it takes. And, um, it's a, it's a constant, I mean, I have a long laundry list of
09:34things that I want to do and that we have never been able to do. And some of the, some of the ideas
09:38have been there forever, like literally like longer than, than ghost has, has, um, just
09:45because I'm, I am very interested in conceptually conceptualizing things and themes and, and let
09:53alone like stage production stuff. And, and just generally like, like a lot of the things
09:59that I've been able to do with ghost, but I've also learned that a good idea is not a bad
10:06idea just because you can't make it happen immediately when you, when you, when you come
10:11up with it, you can sit on it for a while and maybe the stars align and you can do it
10:16better later. Gotcha. Right on. So of course we're talking about Skeleta, the new album
10:19that's going to be on out on April 25th. Uh, not only do we get the brand new album, of course
10:24the world tours coming up too, uh, but we get an exclusive edition of the sister Imperator
10:29comic, uh, which is arriving on March 5th. This is the pre-orders going on right now. What can
10:34you tell us about this upcoming graphic release? And this is going to be one of four. So there's
10:38more to come, right? Ever since we, we, we, we started, um, like really expand on, on
10:49the, uh, on the world, the, the, the, the sort of the Lord, the, the, the, the, the sort
10:55of, uh, side universe of, of the band, um, with sister and, and, and her world. Um, it
11:06has been in the back of my head that there's a lot of things there that can be expanded upon
11:12that is simply, um, let's say ambitious to try to explain in a, in a four minute episode
11:23that's supposed to be funny and, and sort of end with a, some sort of commercial, um,
11:30reveal, you know, because that's essentially what they are. They're supposed to communicate
11:35something to you as a fan, um, but sort of wrapped in a funny way. Um, that sort of took
11:43a life on its own and, and which, you know, at, uh, you know, at least last year, it sort
11:49of culminated in this film call right here, right now, where you got more episodes than,
11:56you know, jammed into it to, to the film and a lot more backstory and all that. Um, but
12:02there's more to it than that. And, um, the, the easier way to explain a lot of the background
12:09is to turn it into a, um, comic simply because it's easier than to make a film. Uh, so, uh,
12:21for any of you who are interested in, in, uh, Sister Imperator and, uh, why she is like,
12:28what she, why she's doing what she's doing and, and how that came about, uh, that's what the,
12:34the comic book is about, the graphic novel. Sweet. You guys are going to be, uh, in
12:38collaboration with Dark Horse Comics for this. And you mentioned the, uh, the movie right here,
12:42right now is actually, uh, in preparation for the interview here. I went back and revisited
12:46right here, right now. I love bands that, um, find just as much importance in, uh, their visuals
12:53as they do the music as well. And, um, was it fun to film right here, right now? Um, was it fun to do
13:00the behind the scenes scenes? I mean, it looked like you were having a good time. Yeah. Oh, absolutely.
13:05I mean, I, I am, I am deeply smitten by, uh, you know, by the, the whole idea of the film world and
13:16I've always been, and, and, and very, very drawn to it. Always wanted to, uh, to make a film and,
13:26and wanted to work in film and, and, um, and to be finally able to do it, obviously this is
13:33maybe not in the capacity of, or exactly how I imagined working in film in general, because
13:40I was, we, this is partly based off of concert work. Um, but it was a, it was definitely a very
13:50inspiring, um, uh, procedure and, and, uh, and it was fun. Um, and, uh, definitely gave me, um,
14:01in Sweden, we call the blooded tooth, which equals, I guess, to it, like a dog who's tasted human blood
14:10or something and becomes Cujo. Very cool. Uh, and speaking of shows, this tour this year is going
14:15to bring you to Madison square garden for the first time. I mean, that's huge. Yeah.
14:18Oh, absolutely. Of course. That that's, that's huge. Yeah. That's, uh, a big feather in the hat.
14:27Yeah. And the day prior, we'll have you here in Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo center.
14:31Actually, first time I ever saw ghost live was at Metallica's Orion festival in Atlantic city.
14:37Uh, it was the middle of the day. You had like one of the daytime sets. You're on one of the main
14:41stages there. Um, any other, uh, you, of course you were down the Jersey, the hot Jersey shore sun
14:47that day, any other memories from that particular performance that you remember off the top of your
14:51head? I'm trying to remember. This is one, one thing I remember. I remember the day I remember
14:56being there. I remember seeing Metallica because they, they played a ride lightning and they played
15:02escape for the one only time they've ever played out. That was really cool. Um, I remember,
15:08I don't remember much from the show ops act actually, I must say I, but that, that is, um,
15:15like my, our show. I, I remember Ross health and the photographer was there and I think he climbed out
15:21like he, he sort of, his thing is that he sort of steps onto the stage and, and I guess he, he asks
15:28first, can he sure. And, and he sort of just like stepped down on stage when you're playing because
15:34his thing is that he will take a shot like right in your face when you're playing.
15:38And, uh, so that's one of his thing things. And I was just, it was just funny. I just,
15:44that's one of the memories of like seeing him there. I remember James had feel was there during
15:50the show and, and because he was sort of behind, um, like our staging and, and, and, and something
15:57like that. And him and Ross was around and, you know, come there and take a drink between songs.
16:02And like, Oh, Hey, Oh, uh, which was fun. Really cool. We've actually played that Wells Fargo,
16:11by the way, before we were there with Iron Maiden, uh,
16:14That's right. You were, I was at that show. You're right.
16:17Yeah. But I know that that was obviously after Orion and that was years after.
16:22Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
16:23Yes. It just dawned on me that we've actually played there before. Um,
16:29yeah. Sorry for thinking out loud here. No, it's all good. But speaking of Metallica,
16:33you guys are going to be joining them along with a slew of other mega bands for, uh, Black Sabbath
16:38and Ozzy Osbourne's farewell show over in Birmingham, England coming up over a 4th of July weekend. Of
16:43course, all proceeds from the show, uh, will be shared equally between, uh, Cure Parkinson's,
16:47uh, Birmingham's children's hospital and the Akon children's hospice. What does the great Prince
16:52of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne and the music of Black Sabbath mean to you? Uh, a great deal. Uh,
16:58I, um, I grew up with both Black Sabbath and Ozzy, um, simply because my brother liked them, my,
17:07you know, 13 year older brother. So, um, and, you know, when I was little and this is in the eighties.
17:16So, um, uh, obviously, you know, let's be frank, like in the eighties, there were definitely moments
17:26when Black Sabbath as a, uh, in, in these various incarnations that, you know, that was Black Sabbath
17:31during the eighties was like a little bit of hit or miss. And in terms of like, um, prominence,
17:37if you will, um, in, in Sweden, we had this magazine called McKay. That was amazing that that was just
17:44like, um, it was just a youth culture magazine that was covering anything that was interesting.
17:49And so, so there was always a lot of hard rock, um, uh, but intermixed with everything else.
17:56And, uh, that was a source of, of great inspiration and information for anybody who, who, who read it.
18:01And, and, and since I was like consuming that magazine, anything that was in there, I would
18:05sort of somehow, you know, be interested in. And, and of course, where, where, where, where
18:11Black Sabbath might be a little bit more of a side note, like the here, here they are, they have a new
18:15album out and they have a new singer and they've, you know, and, and of course I was aware of them
18:19because I really loved old Black Sabbath. Uh, Ozzy was more like of a, you know, an eighties sort of
18:25mega rockstar. Um, um, and, and, um, I was an equal fan of that nowadays, nowadays, and have been for
18:35at least 30 years. I've, I've been very, very, very much a fan of, of, of, of all the various
18:42incarnations of, of Black Sabbath. Like, um, you know, obviously the, the, the Dio years also
18:48that they, um, what is it? Three, I almost counted Heaven and Hell, like the band, but they did three
18:54records with the, uh, with Dio also meant a lot to me. Um, but yeah, their influence, Ozzy and Ozzy
19:03with, with Black Sabbath, that influence on me has been massive. Like, uh, from a showman point of
19:09view, Ozzy, the, the, the, the eighties character, character, sorry, but the eighties
19:15sort of Ozzy, uh, very much so as, as a frontman and as a singer, um, and, and musically, of
19:22course, Ozzy too, but, but, uh, I must say that the, the, especially the, I don't know what
19:28to call it, the prog years with, with, with, uh, Black Sabbath. Uh, I'm, I've, I've, I've
19:34listened to the first couple of records to death, but the records that really mean the
19:40most to me are, are, are, um, uh, you know, volume four and, and, um, Sabbath by the Sabbath
19:46and, and Sabotage. Uh, and they, those are, are, are still very much on the, on the, on
19:54a pedestal in terms of, of, of being deeply influential for me. And a lot of the, the, you
20:00know, a lot of the, uh, uh, courage, whatever they, uh, sometimes I put into making records
20:07that are mournful or, or, or, um, frail or, or, you know, advantageous, uh, musically. Uh,
20:17I, I am, I'm pretty certain that a lot of that comes from, you know, reading geezers really,
20:22really, really mature and frail lyrics about being alive, being a person, being, uh,
20:30a person afraid of, of, um, uh, of, of things in the world and, and the threats. And, uh,
20:38I'll also, also like a lot of the musical playfulness they had on those albums, specifically those
20:45albums are very inspiring where, you know, people usually assume, or, or you sort of mistake,
20:51um, Sabotage as, as like a, a, just a brutal heavy metal record, just because you have like
20:58hole in the sky and symptom of the universe, but the rest of the record is basically ballads.
21:02So safe to say, I mean, the emotions are running deep for the fact that, you know,
21:06you get to be a part of such a legendary and historic show with somebody that's been so
21:11influential to you, you know, over the years. I mean, even before you were thinking about this
21:16whole music thing. Of course it's, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's gravely
21:21humbling, gravely humbling and, and, uh, and, and, and such an enormous, uh, uh, mind, uh,
21:29freck, um, for someone who, who have spent so many hours, uh, watching, uh, you know,
21:39when I was a kid, like I had the videos, like the, the, the one, um, uh, there was this early
21:46documentary from the eighties, uh, called, uh, just say Aussie, I think it was. Um, and
21:55so I had that watch that a lot. There was an early black Sabbath documentary also from like
22:02late eighties. I don't remember exactly what it's called, but I remember what it's, I have
22:06the, I still have the original like VHS. Um, and, uh, also like the, uh, the live from,
22:15from Hammersmith Odeon in 78 or whatever it is, 78, I think was, I don't know how many
22:22times I've seen that Paris 1970. That's also like another VHS thing that meant a lot to
22:30me. So yeah, they've, they've been very, very, very colorful and, and, uh, or I've colored
22:37my writing probably much more than I've given them credit for, which I don't understand why
22:42I haven't, but, um, um, um, huge, huge influence.
22:49Very, very cool. And you're, it's being advertised as Papa the fifth perpetual is going to be a
22:53part of this, uh, black Sabbath and Aussie show. Uh, anything special, uh, that you may
22:59have in store, have planned that you can share with us?
23:01Uh, not, I can't really share anything, but, but, but obviously it's, it's, um, it's going
23:08to be a special, uh, day. And, and I, I think any performance you'll see there is going to
23:16be somehow, uh, uh, special and, and, and unique. Um, so, uh, I expect no less from mine.
23:28Way cool. Way cool. Yeah. Uh, Tobias, you have a hell of a year ahead of you here. Of course,
23:33uh, Ghost's sixth song Skeletor set for release on April 25th. Uh, the great song Satan Dized.
23:39Uh, you make sure everybody that's watching this now go check out the music video for it. It is
23:43out of this world. Uh, just a killer track. We're very much looking forward to, uh, the rest of the
23:48album. The rumor is that there's going to be a couple more singles or a couple more tracks from
23:53the album, uh, released before a Skeletor comes out on April the 25th. Of course, we've got the
23:58big show here in Philadelphia. That's going to be July 19th. Uh, tickets are on sale now. WMMR.com
24:04and ghostofficial.com has all the details for you there. Uh, also real quick, I wanted to touch,
24:09I know we talked a little bit about the, um, the right here, right now, you can get that on 4k
24:14and Blu-ray and DVD, and you can get the soundtrack on vinyl. I'm a big vinyl guy. So anything, uh,
24:20that you put out musically, like always put it out on vinyl, the different, uh, the variants and
24:25stuff like that, man, we eat that kind of stuff up. I too, I am, I am too a big vinyl guy and that's
24:32the sort of the go-to format for me. Uh, so I'm, I'm, you know, overjoyed and, and, and, uh, blown
24:41away to be able to, uh, continue making records that, that can come out on vinyl, which is fantastic.
24:48And by the time everybody watches this, uh, your birthday was a couple of days ago. So happy
24:52belated birthday to Tobias as well. Thank you very much. I really appreciate you taking some time
24:59to speak with us here at MMR. Looking forward to the new record Skeletor again, April 25th,
25:04Loma Vista recordings as it for you tickets on sale now for the MMR concert event with ghost at the
25:09Wells Fargo center. And we can't wait to have you back through the Philadelphia area. The best of
25:13luck with 2025 kick-ass at the Aussie show coming up this summer, man. And we can't wait to see you
25:18back through Philly. Thanks for taking time to chat with us today, Tobias.
25:22Thank you so much, man. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. Have a good day, my man.
25:26You too.