Ghost‘s Tobias Forge made a rare public appearance last week without his mask or any face paint. Watch footage of the moment below.
The musician joined Lars Winnerbäck on stage last Friday (October 10) at the SAAB Arena in Linköping, Sweden, to provide backing vocals and guitar on Winnerbäck’s 2003 track ‘Dunkla Rum’.
Forge recently opened up about how he felt being unmasked in 2017 by former members of the band amid a lawsuit. Speaking to Aziz Bentot of Dealer 2 Metal he said (via Blabbermouth): “I think that a lot of fans and a lot of people around me were way more upset or more anxious about those things remaining or how to maintain that than I was, because…I never felt really anonymous before, because in a micro format, I was, to a certain degree, known within a really, really, really niche little group of people who liked old-school death metal, who knew who I was. And that group stays together. They all talk.
“So as soon as Ghost happened, all of them knew who was in Ghost. And so I never felt as, ‘Oh, before the spring of 2017, I was completely unknown. And then I became a really known person.’ I’m not a known person. Maybe a lot of people know about Ghost, but people in general do not know who I am.”
Check out Forge performing unmasked below:
Back in July, Ghost dedicated their sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden in New York to Black Sabbath icon Ozzy Osbourne following news of his passing.
Seven songs into the set, frontman Forge – aka Papa Perpetua – took a moment to recognise Ozzy’s impact and dedicated the night to the Prince Of Darkness.
Before playing ‘The Future Is A Foreign Place’, Forge said: “Good evening, New York City! How are you? It’s one of those days now. We’re going to dedicate tonight’s show to the memory of the life and laughter of Ozzy Osbourne…For being the Prince of Darkness, he sure gave us a lot of light. So we’re going to tap into that and carry it forward, through a time of darkness.”
Forge also performed at Ozzy’s ‘Back To The Beginning’ concert in July, playing Ozzy’s hit ‘Bark At The Moon’. Ahead of the show, Forge spoke to NME about Ghost’s new album ‘Skeletá’, and about the “tremendous influence” of Ozzy and Black Sabbath.
While appearing as a guest on NME‘s In Conversation series, Forge explained of Black Sabbath and Ozzy’s impact: “Ozzy as a frontman and Ozzy as a solo artist is something I put a divide between, because I grew up in the ‘80s where he was much more of a rockstar than Black Sabbath were. I gravitated towards that, but I also grew up listening to the old Black Sabbath records.
“Nowadays, I love most Black Sabbath releases. Even the ‘80s and ‘90s albums, I love them for what they are, and the Dio era also has a very special place in my heart, too. ‘Vol. 4’, ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ and ‘Sabotage’ have been absolute milestones for me for as long as I’ve been writing music. They’ve been very influential, even though it might not be super evident. I’ve always listened to them, and I’ve always been inspired by them.”
Check out NME‘s full chat with Forge above.
