Tobias Forge Talks About His Love Of Metallica In The 80s

Ghost founder and lead singer Tobias Forge is always vocal about his love for Metallica. He has never been shy about how he idolizes the band so much they even did a cover of “Enter Sandman.”

In a recent interview, Forge mentioned how much he admires the iconic metal quartet not only creatively, but also commercially, especially during their initial decade. During the interview, they also went through discussing Ghost’s atypically astronomical success.

The interviewer asked him, “Why was Ghost able to breakthrough at a time when pop, R&B and rap acts dominate commercially?” considering that there aren’t many rock bands from your era as big as them. Forge then replied that there are “various reasons” to be considered. One is that there’s a notion that they’re “not writing the same record every time.” Aside from that, they’re “consistently trying to bring a show to the people” he added.

Also, “It defies logic for a lot of bands, I think, to try to expand beyond their means.” He then set two albums as an example. The singer said:

“Because I was so determined that, yeah, I want to be what Metallica was in the ’80s, on the ‘…And Justice For All’ tour. That sort of band or like ‘Powerslave’ with Iron Maiden. That sort of f—ing theater and playing arenas.”

Although he’s “always been very, very influenced by Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones,” he can’t help but “have a huge alignment and childhood love with big-ass arena rock.” He then gave a lot of kudos and credit to Metallica as well as Pantera’s Phil Anselmo, Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and Guns N’ Roses Duff McKagan for bringing Ghost along on their previous tours. Forge concluded:

“They lifted up the band . . . onto their stages and put us in front of a lot of people. Without that, this wouldn’t have happened.”