Ghost’s Tobias Forge: Kiss were my first idols

(Image credit: Harmony Gerber - Getty)

Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge says his first ever idols when he was young were Kiss.

The vocalist also reports that he always wanted to “entertain with music” and create a band which incorporated traits of Kiss, the Rolling Stone and Sex Pistols.

Forge tells iHeartRadio: “I’ve been interested in music for as long as I can remember. My first idols were Kiss. Ever since I was very little, I wanted to entertain – and I wanted to entertain with music. 

“I watched a lot of VHS video when I was a kid and one favourite film that I had was The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle, which painted a very vivid and weird idea of being a rock band, which completely sucked me in. I was completely in awe of that film. 

“Obviously, little did I understand at that point, but I understood later what a chaotic band and what a screwed-up career Sex Pistols had. But it definitely coloured my thinking. 

“I wanted a band to be somewhere in between Kiss, the Rolling Stones and Sex Pistols – just outrageous and over the top, with fictional characters.”

Listen to the full interview below.

Ghost released Prequelle, their fourth studio album, earlier this year. Metal Hammer readers voted it the best metal album of the year so far in a poll run last month.

The band will play at London’s Royal Albert Hall on September 9 and will then embark on a run of date across North America, wrapping up at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on December 15.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.