Ghost’s Tobias Forge on Why He’s Playing “Back to the Beginning” Solo

Ghost is on their ghost shit, but the band’s frontman Tobias Forge is on some whole other shit, too. He’s got quite the schedule ahead of him. He also just did an interview with Oran O’Beirne of Overdrive, and he talked a little bit about his participation in the upcoming final Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne shows “Back to the Beginning,” and how he’ll be making that appearance without the rest of the band. He said this, as transcribed by the cool cats at Blabbermouth.net.:

“The only thing I can really tell you, from what I gather, was that bands participating on stage playing, like full bands, are generally bands that are on tour at the time, whereas a lot of the artists that [are performing] singularly are ones that may not be sort of accessible in full group. We [in GHOST] were one of those, because we are about to start our U.S. tour, like, two days after that or something like that, so it was impossible for our entire entourage to multitask like that. We couldn’t do it. Especially economically, it was, like, no fucking way. It’s not gonna work. So, my job here, my mission, the gift that I’ve been given, which I feel really proud to be part of and being asked to do, is to play with — I don’t know — some of the people playing there. Which I know a few others are doing too. I guess we’re being put together in makeshift groups to play songs, which is phenomenal.”

Forge is taking his new 2025 touring cycle persona Papa V Perpetua for a spin. Proceeds for the show, which takes place July 5 at Villa Park in Birmingham, United Kingdom, go to the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Cure Parkinson’s, and Acorn Children’s Hospice.