Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge recently confirmed that the band has no immediate plans following their massive “Skeletour,” which is currently supporting their 2025 album, Skeletá. During a February 21 appearance on Full Metal Jackie‘s radio show, the frontman opened up about his decision to step back from the relentless touring and recording cycle.
When asked about his life outside of the band, his hobbies and where he wants to spend more time, Forge was quick to point out that prioritizing his family is long overdue.
“All the above. Yeah. One, I have my family. Duh. Of course, everybody knows that. 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. Believe me, I felt bad, but I’ve definitely come to a point where not only do I need — I feel physically and mentally I need to be home, simply because they’re 17; they’re not gonna be around for an eon,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
The musician then used a construction metaphor to explain the immense creative burnout he is currently facing after single-handedly driving the artistic vision of Ghost for over a decade.
“And then the most acute factor here is the fact… Imagine you being a house builder, and you draw up houses, great ideas, but you’re also doing the permits and you’re also doing the tiles and you’re building everything and you’re sewing up all that [s**t] and putting it all together. I don’t simply have an idea. And I’m out of tiles. I’m out of wood. I just don’t have it. So 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.”
However, stepping away from Ghost doesn’t mean he is taking a total vacation from the entertainment industry. He revealed he is already deep into several other creative ventures:
“But it doesn’t mean that I’m not doing anything. I have two film projects that I’m working on. Just before I left for tour, I was recording another album with another thing. So I have tons of stuff lined up for me [for] the coming years. And also hobbies that I have put aside a little, just because for the last 15 years Ghost has obviously been force majeure. Luckily, my family has been very supportive of that. They know that in order to sort of make this happen, I need 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 wanna lose speed. And I just came to a point where I’m, like, 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, okay.”
Reflecting on the heavy toll that constant international touring took on his early years as a father, Forge shared how his relationship with his kids has matured over time. When he was asked whether his kids know what he is doing, he said:
“Of course. They’re 17. Of course they know what I’m doing. Of course they’re aware of… And we are very connected. We’re very good friends. We speak about anything. And they’re very aware of my thought processes and where I am, how I feel about things. And they’re big enough and vocalizing enough to be able to explain. And we can have a conversation about how they felt as kids, me being away a lot. But now they’re the ones sort of pushing me, like, ‘Yeah, it’s only three weeks left,’ whereas in the past it was always, like, when I was gonna be away for seven weeks or nine weeks, it was hard for them to fathom, of course, what that timeframe is. And there were a lot of moments where you had to sort of sneak out before they woke up and have one screaming child on the balcony, sort of, when you jump into the car. And that was not easy. But when you’re driven by a conviction, and I was convinced, and I am still convinced, that I did the right thing, of course. And luckily, now there’s no resentment that I know of me having done that. But now they’re the ones who are reasonable, and, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s do that when you come home.’ Which is really encouraging, but that again is just… Well, again, it just happened to coincide with where I am mentally in life. It just feels like a good time to sort of, like, ‘All right. When I come back, we’ll start this new chapter, this new reality.'”
In a recent conversation with Adam Wallis of Canada’s Global News, Forge was asked if the band is considering to release new EP—a strategy they have frequently employed between full-length albums in the past.
He said: “No. As of right now, there is no EP coming. Besides the [ongoing North American leg of the ‘Skeletour‘] tour that we’re doing now, we have nothing else planned. So the future is right now very open. Creatively, I have a lot to do. I’m actually recording currently, but it’s not a covers EP and it’s not a new Ghost record. So, I actually do not know exactly what and when anything will happen.”
“And that’s a good thing, because for 15 years now we’ve been going at it nonstop, where cycles have basically just sort of been stitched together. Every time we’ve ended an album cycle, I’ve walked off stage knowing that Monday morning I will be in the studio and our next show is there. So it has been that sort of sort cyclical nonstop thinking ahead, thinking forward, expand, expand, expand, expand, for a long time, and I’ve come to a point where I’m just, like… 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.”
