TOBIAS FORGE Explains Why GHOST Doesn't Change Set From Night To Night: 'We Are Simply Not That Kind Of Band'

In a new interview with Lou Brutus of HardDrive, GHOST leader Tobias Forge spoke about the band's upcoming North American 2026 leg of the "Skeletour" world tour, which will kick off January 21 at the Kia Center in Orlando, Florida and run through February 23 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California. Asked if it's "impossible" to change things up from night to night because of "everything that goes" into the stage production for "Skeletour", Forge said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "In the past and, and this happens to bands all the time, you get criticized because you don't change the set just for that specific show, which is insane. You want us to reconfigure the whole thing every night? We are simply not that kind of band; we don't do that. So we figured that, well, a whole lot of people have not seen the show now, so we will continue this tour and just present the tour. 'Here's the tour.' I mean, just because people in Europe have seen it… If you live in Baltimore, you have not seen it, so you're gonna get the same thing. The only thing that we added was a little bit of circulating slots. Each and every night there's a slot over here — I think it's number four and number five, and then there's one later where there's a circulation of songs — it rotates. So it's never really the same show. And we added more songs now, so that becomes a little bit of a roulette every night. And that is for fans, yes, but that's also for us, because that keeps you on your toe a little, and that keeps everybody fresh a little. And if you wanna play yourself a little game, you don't look at the setlist and you're just sort of, like, 'Oh, we're playing that tonight. Oh, cool.' And for me, mentally, that's a little bit of a good thing."

Asked how he decides which new songs are going to make the setlist when he starts a tour, Forge said: "Usually when I make a record, I always write a song to fit the start of the record, but that start of the record has always then gone on to be the beginning of the tour, the beginning of the set for the tour. So that's usually my M.O. going into an album cycle. Of course, we're gonna start with 'Rats' on that tour, or 'Kaisarion' on the previous one and now 'Peacefield', as per normal. But what ends up happening at a certain points — it has happened to us a few times, because planning out a tour in advance usually is advanced lot more time beforehand. Then you settle on a release date, so you end up with a starting date of the tour thinking that, 'Oh, the record will be out by then,' and by the time that you're closing in on the tour, the release date for the record gets pushed. And this happened again this time around, which [was] a third time in a row, I think. So the tour started before the record ['Skeletá'] came out, and that did affect how many [new] songs we put into the set."

On the topic of how he goes about designing the stage and the presentation for each GHOST tour, Tobias said: "The actual blueprint of the stage is… I have always been very interested in drawing stages. So, I basically got myself a — what do you call it? — squared paper, and I started drawing away. And a lot of the design of this show is based on our previous show, but expanded upon from there.

"For years, I've had this idea that I wanted to have the show change and alter throughout the show," he explained. "So you started in one form and gradually transformed into another. Practically, you can't — or you can, but if you're gonna do like a transformer setup where you physically transform things, there's a limit to that. So, what I've always had in mind was that… For years we've used something called inflatables, and that's exactly what they sound like — it's something that you blow up, inflate them with air and they look huge and robust. [It's] very common in pop and heavy metal, because they don't take a whole lot of space. But when they are inflated, they look big."

This past August, GHOST completed the U.S. leg of the "Skeletour" in support of the group's sixth studio album, "Skeletá", which came out in April. Marking a bold evolution in GHOST's live performances, the tour was the band's most theatrical and cinematic production yet. Designed by creative director Tobias Rylander and Forge, the tour embraced a grander and more ambitious scale than ever before.

The set design was a striking blend of gothic symbolism and brutalist architecture, melding the ornate drama of cathedrals with the stark lines of modernist concrete forms. Inspired by brutalist cathedrals across Europe, the stage transformed into a sanctum of dark majesty: part sacred temple and part rock coliseum.

At the core of the design was the "Grucifix" — GHOST's reimagined crucifix inspired by their iconic logo. Suspended above the band, this colossal structure functioned as both a visual centerpiece and a dynamic lighting rig, casting an ethereal glow over the stage.

Rylander's design included sculptural scenic facades on the lighting pods, echoing the textures and verticality of cathedral interiors, further reinforcing the ecclesiastical themes central to GHOST's identity.

The lighting leans into a retro-rock aesthetic, with visual nods to classical QUEEN and VAN HALEN. The tour also represented a milestone for the band as it's the first time a full-scale video production led by Rylander and video director Amir Chamdin. With video content by Green Wall Designs, the creative direction transcended the physical stage, evolving into a fully immersive multimedia experience.

In keeping with the show's theatricality, the stage itself had been engineered to perform as much as the artist. Multiple elevated performance platforms, mechanical lifts, and concealed entrances are strategically placed to accommodate dramatic reveals and character transitions. A living, breathing cathedral of performance, "Skeletour" redefined the GHOST live experience, where sacred architecture collides with the raw energy of rock and roll.

Renowned for his work across live music world tours, fashion, theatre and art installations, Rylander has collaborated with artists such as Beyoncé, THE 1975, Childish Gambino, Chappell Roan, The XX and FKA Twigs. "Skeletour" marks his first creative partnership with the Grammy Award-winning band, bringing a new dimension to GHOST's already-iconic stage presence.

The European leg of GHOST's 2025 world tour kicked off on April 15 in Manchester, United Kingdom and concluded on May 24 in Oslo, Norway. The North American leg of GHOST's 2025 tour launched on July 9 in Baltimore, Maryland and wrapped up on August 16 in Houston, Texas.

This past May, "Skeletá" landed at position No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 86,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the LP's first week of release. According to Billboard, 89% of that figure (77,000) consisted of traditional album sales, with vinyl purchases accounting for over 44,000 copies. Notably, "Skeletá" was the first hard rock album to reach the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 since AC/DC's "Power Up" in 2020.

The music video for the LP's first single, "Satanized", introduced the new character who is fronting GHOST for its 2025 touring cycle: Papa V Perpetua.

Forge performed as a "new" Papa Emeritus on each of the band's first three LPs, 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 2018's "Prequelle". In March 2020, at final show of GHOST's "Prequelle" tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the character who fronted the act for its "Impera" (2022) album phase.