GHOST's TOBIAS FORGE Is Not Immune To Criticism

GHOST's Tobias Forge spoke to Resurrection Fest about the fact that most musicians are not immune to criticism. Asked if he is the kind of sensitive person that pays attention to what the "haters" have to say, Forge responded (see video below): "I am, to a degree. But I flip as well. I'm a little bit torn between personalities in one way where I care a lot about what that person or that person thinks of me whereas I couldn't give a fuck about what that person thinks or that person thinks. And I might be afraid of conflict with certain people, but if it's someone down the street, I couldn't give a toss. As most people, I guess, I'm not super linear. I have different sides of myself."

He continued: "Being very interested in other bands, in terms of rock history, for lack of a better word, I also know that most bands that I know of that have made it on a grander scale… I mean, I like a lot of bands that never made it, that are completely commercially… complete flops that I like, because of other reasons. But bands that I look up to in terms of the things that I also commercially wanna amount to — bands that are bigger and have a long career — most of them have been, in one way or form, at odds with a part of the mass. I mean, I fucking adore METALLICA. And remember — most people don't, because most people weren't there; myself included, I was not there — but I know that when they had 'Ride The Lightning' out, that divided their fanbase completely, because it was a complete quote-unquote sellout album, with a ballad on it. And now, people would never call that a sellout album. So you have to have ice in your stomach, as they say [in Sweden]. If I'm half as right as I think I am, and I think I'm doing something great — I make some people happy — time will tell what we were."

GHOST is on tour promoting its latest album, "Prequelle", which came out in June.

The North American trek, known as "A Pale Tour Named Death", is visiting nearly 40 cities, including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Toronto.

Forge performed as a "new" Papa Emeritus on each of GHOST's first three albums, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III was retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of "Prequelle".