After finishing a 70-show tour, what you should do is not to immediately prepare for the next album, but to ask yourself: Do you still have anything to say? This is the explanation Tobias Forge gave for Ghost's breakup in a recent interview with "Kerrang!" - it is not about quitting, nor is it in a hurry to define it as an end.
This tour called "Skeletour" was launched to support Ghost's 2025 album "Skeletá" and officially ended in February this year. Forge described himself as feeling "exhausted" after completing the seventy shows. Looking back on the entire tour, he chose to end with another statement: "I don't want to call it a bookend, but it serves as a great finale." (I don't want to call it a bookend, but it serves as a great finale.)
He compared it to having a grand wedding: you won’t get married again the next day. "It's a great set, a great band, and it sounds great. We've been putting on a really cool show most nights, and I couldn't be happier."
But what really made him put the brakes on was the blank feeling at the end of the tour of "I don't know what to do next." Forge said that in the past, every album had a clear starting point and what he wanted to express. It all came from his own creative impulse and "was never a contractual obligation." This time is different: "I have no idea. I just want to do something else. This doesn't mean anything else, but it also means that we really don't have anything scheduled at hand - this is a normal hiatus."
He also mentioned the sense of responsibility on his shoulders: when the tour was on the road, so many people were waiting to watch the show and so many people bought tickets. This pressure used to be a positive driving force, but at this moment when there is no clear direction, he does not want to carry this responsibility on him all the time. "I can bear it when I am on the scene, but when I am not there, it is too tiring."
Leave time for the two seventeen-year-old children at home
In February of this year, Forge already revealed his plans to break up the group on the "Full Metal Jackie" show. At that time, he bluntly stated that he "needs to stay at home." His two children are now seventeen years old. "My wife and I have been waiting at home for fifteen years," he said frankly, "Believe me, I have always felt guilty, but I have indeed reached a stage where I feel physically and mentally that I need to go home. They will not stay there forever."
He also mentioned that his hands are not completely blank: there are two movie projects in progress, and he also recorded another album that has nothing to do with Ghost before going on tour. "There are a lot of things to do in the next few years, and there are also interests that have been shelved in the past fifteen years because Ghost is force majeure."
As for the band Ghost itself, Forge said the wish list is still there, and "there are still things that I feel we haven't accomplished yet," but that will be "at some point in the future." He also reiterated what he said in an interview with NME last year, saying that Ghost's huge character set and storyline may come to an end. "If fans need this set of lore to like the band, then this element will probably end soon."
