Tobias Forge has shared that he is ready to take a “step away” from playing live after Ghost’s current tour, saying that he “needs to be home” for a while.
The frontman is currently underway with the North American leg of Ghost’s ‘Skeletour’, which kicked off in the UK last year and came in celebration of their latest album ‘Skeletá’.
In a recent appearance on Full Metal Jackie, Forge was asked about his life outside of the band, and revealed that he is planning on taking some time away to focus on his family.
“I’ve had two kids waiting at home with my wife for 15 years, and maybe that says something about me that it wasn’t a pushing enough factor during those years,” he explained. “Believe me, I felt bad, but I’ve definitely come to a point where I feel, physically and mentally. I need to be home. [My kids are] 17; they’re not gonna be around for an eon.”
Forge also said that he has other creative projects lined-up outside of Ghost too, and wants to take some downtime if he is going to find more inspiration.
“The only way for me to come up with a new idea and get some new inspiration is to just step away. It is as simple as that. But it doesn’t mean that I’m not doing anything. I have two film projects that I’m working on,” he said.
“Just before I left for the tour, I was recording another album with another thing. So I have tons of stuff lined up [for] the coming years. And also hobbies that I have put aside because for the last 15 years Ghost has been force majeure.”
While Forge didn’t share any information about the new projects outside of Ghost, he did go on to express his gratitude for his family being so supportive of him over the years.
“They know that in order to sort of make this happen, I needed to do this. And over the years I’ve been very worried about momentum and just keeping it going because I have so many ideas and I don’t want to lose speed,” he added. “I came to a point where I’m actually fine if the momentum is not there. It’s cool. I’m good. I feel good about that. If I lose it, OK.”
The latest comments from Forge align with what he told Global News last month, when he shut down hopes of a new EP to accompany the ‘Skeleta’ album.
The band have shared an EP after nearly every full album of theirs, but when asked if they were looking to continue the tradition, Forge replied: “There is no EP coming. Besides the tour that we’re doing now, we have nothing else planned. So the future is right now very open.”
He also shed more light on his upcoming projects, clarifying that what he is working on now is “not a covers EP and not a new Ghost record”.
Discussing the future of the masked metal band, he added: “I’ve come to a point where I still have ideas, I still have dreams, I still have things that I think we have not achieved — definitely the wish list is still there — but that’s gonna be at some other point.”
The North American leg of the ‘Skeletour’ kicked off last month in Orlando, Florida, and the band went on to cancel shows in Knoxville, Charlotte and Greenville due to a state of emergency being issued in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The dates are set to wrap up tonight (Monday February 23) with a show at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California.
Last year, NME spoke to Forge about the future of Ghost, and the singer opened up about wanting to bring the “lore” of the band to an end.
“I think that there might be an end to the storytelling because it’s not productive to have this endless soap opera,” he said. “If fans need the lore in order to like the band, then that element will probably be over quite soon.”
