Ghost Singer Reveals Bands Lied On Show Postponements Because of Money

During the pandemic, a lot of bands and solo artists were forced to postpone their tours following the health and safety concerns. However, Ghost frontman Tobias Forge offers a different insight as to why these acts had to cancel their live shows.

Forge rekindle his friendship with Avenged Sevenfold’s Johnny Christ on the recent episode of Drinks With Johnny podcast, Papa Emeritus said about the artists during the downtime of live music:

“Well, the problem now is that a lot of these bands find the bottom line not to be satisfactory. They don’t go out and say, ‘Look, we’re not making as much money as we wish, so we’re going to cancel or we’re going to postpone till the stars are aligned and the marketplace looks better.’

“They go out and tell the crowd, ‘Oh, because of safety concerns we’re not touring,’ and that is a fucking horrible message to the crowd, to the rest of the business to everyone that we’re all relying on – as in all the promoters and everyone working at the venues, everybody working as vendors, all the crew members, all the busing companies, all the truck companies, all these people who just had their tour canceled just because these three, four or five dudes/girls just decided that the money wasn’t great. And then they go out and tell ‘Oh, by the way, don’t even go to shows because it’s not safe.'”

When asked if there are bands who actually told fans not to go to shows, Forge said:

“No, it becomes that. That is what becomes. If one band decides to go and say like, ‘No, [it’s] because of safety, it’s not safe to tour because of COVID.’ Of course, you’re sending a message to the crowd that ‘Oh, maybe it’s not [safe].

“And remember, we have cultivated this agoraphobia and this germophobia now that is a big problem. And it takes a lot of courage for a lot of people to go out. It takes a lot of courage for people to go to a show. And when one band goes out and says, ‘Oh, we’re not going to tour because of safety concerns, because the world is not a safe place because of COVID.’ It does say to the fan that ‘Oh, maybe that’s right. I shouldn’t even go out now.’ That is detrimental.”

Meanwhile, Ghost is currently wrapping up their European tour. Watch the full podcast below.