Rumor: Ghost’s Papa Emeritus Fired His Entire Band

Metal Wani published an interview with one of Ghost’s Nameless Ghoul’s earlier today (embedded below) in which the Ghoul (most likely Swedish rock musician Tobias Forge, who is also Papa Emeritus and is widely believed to stand in for the Ghouls in all interviews) spends a lot of time talking about the band’s next album. He talks about the upcoming effort’s “dark,” “apocalyptic,” “dystopian” themes, which is nothing we didn’t already know, but he does reveal that the album is very much still in the writing phase with recording scheduled for August, so at least that much is new.

The more interesting part, though, is this: there have been rumors circling since the end of Ghost’s fall 2016 North American tour that Forge let the rest of his band go when that run ended. I hadn’t heard these rumors before, but Blabbermouth writes about them as if it’s been a public topic of discussion for some time now. Can anyone confirm? Has this been a thing? Where did the rumors originate?

There could’ve already been — and probably have been — several lineup changes throughout the years, of course, and we’d never have known. Outside of Forge, the only member of Ghost whose identity has been revealed is recently added bassist Megan Thomas (also of all-girl Led Zeppelin tribute band Lez Zeppelin), who toured with Ghost last fall.

When asked about the lineup changes in the interview, here’s how Forge / Papa / the Ghoul responded:

“From a practical point of view, you’re interested in, on the one hand, preserving the sound, or the elements that make up the sound, and you still wanna progress. I think one of the secrets behind our preserving ability is the fact that we don’t necessarily have to have the same six people in the room to make that sound, which helps.

“It’s always a blessing and a curse when you have some of these classic bands over the course of rock and roll history, where in order for them to sound like that exact band, you need those four individuals, and if one is missing, it does not sound like that. And, fortunately, we don’t have that problem. Because performing Ghost and recording Ghost has never really been the same thing. So that we can preserve our sound; we don’t have to rely on… if some people come and go, which is good. Queens of the Stone Age is the same thing. Everything goes through Josh’s [Homme] hands, and therefore it sounds like Queens of the Stone Age, regardless of who he brings in and out of the band, which is, I guess, a similar situation.”

That statement doesn’t directly address whether any band members were let go after the fall tour, although it does confirm that Forge is the main songwriter (which we knew anyway), and implies that any member changes that could’ve taken place last fall won’t effect the band’s sound going forward. So… still TBD on that rumor, although it certainly seems possible.

It’s also possible that the whole idea of all the band members being let go was just a publicity stunt to drum up more interest in the Ghost mythos. This is, after all, the band that has allegedly now had four “different” frontmen.

The “new” lineup is scheduled to make its debut on Ghost’s upcoming European tour. We will, of course, keep you posted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoOCKXQdtR0