Former Nameless Ghouls Say Ghost is a Band, Not Tobias Forge’s Solo Project
The four former Nameless Ghouls (real names: Simon Söderberg, Mauro Rubino, Henrik Palm, and Martin Hjertstedt) who filed a lawsuit against Ghost frontman Papa Emeritus (real name: Tobias Forge) earlier this year have responded to Forge’s response to their original suit.
To review: the Nameless Ghouls allege that Forge attempted to make them “consultants” despite a previous agreement that they were all equal members, and that, furthermore, he owes them all money. Unsurprisingly, Forge’s response was basically that he had always been the primary creative and business force behind Ghost, and that none of these musicians were original members of the band but, rather, hired guns from the get-go.
And now, unsurprisingly, the Nameless Ghouls have released a statement which basically says “We were not hired guns!”
A translation of the response, courtesy of Reddit (by way of Metal Injection), reads:
“Tobias Forge is trying in his reply to paint a picture of the parties’ cooperation in Ghost has been a solo business run by Tobias Forge, with the other musicians being hired guest musicians and almost passive puppets in the business. This is not in compliance with the truth. Tobias Forge has certainly been the band’s main songwriter, had the role as the band’s cinematic front figure ‘Papa Emeritus’, has been a driving force in the band’s business, as well as handling to the band’s affairs business outward. However, the activities carried out with respect to Ghost have extensively been handled jointly by the members, for example. by making decisions jointly regarding the band’s image, by participating in interviews, and by the fact that every member has, at some time or always, contributed when recording the band’s albums and singles and by touring together almost continuously since 2011.”
The response goes on to assert — and this is a doozy — that Forge neither created nor owns the rights to the Papa Emeritus character:
“It is also noteworthy that the figure ‘Papa Emeritus’, as Ghost builds his entire image, was created by Peter Hällje. Peter Hällje has never been a member of the band but was involved in the circles around the band when it was formed. The reason Peter Hällje let Ghost make use of the figure and concept he created was that he was a good friend of Martin Persner. It is also noteworthy that the permission given by Peter Hällje was not given to Tobias Forge, but to Martin Persner for use in the band Ghost.”
Eeeeeeennnnteeerrresting. If the Nameless Ghouls are able to prove any of this, well, needless to say, that would not be great for Forge.
We’ll continue to cover this story as it develops. In the meantime, you can read the entire response below.
