Ghost’s Tobias Forge has admitted “physically and mentally” he needs to be at home with his two children as the band prepare to “step away” following the conclusion of the Skeletour.
The mammoth jaunt in support of the Swedish rock band’s 2025 album Skeletá will conclude at Inglewood’s Intuit Dome in California on Monday (23.02.26).
And, in a recent interview, the 44-year-old frontman admitted he is needed at home with his fraternal twins – son Morris and daughter Minou, both 17 – for the time being with no new projects with Ghost planned at this time.
Speaking on the Full Metal Jackie radio show, he said: “…One, I have my family. Duh. Of course, everybody knows that. I’ve had two kids waiting at home with my wife for 15 years, and maybe that says something about me that it wasn’t a pushing enough factor during those years. Believe me, I felt bad, but I’ve definitely come to a point where not only do I need — I feel physically and mentally I need to be home, simply because they’re 17; they’re not gonna be around for an eon. And then the most acute factor here is the fact… Imagine you being a house builder, and you draw up houses, great ideas, but you’re also doing the permits and you’re also doing the tiles and you’re building everything and you’re sewing up all that [s***] and putting it all together. I don’t simply have an idea. And I’m out of tiles. I’m out of wood. I just don’t have it. So the only way for me to come up with a new idea and get some new inspiration is to just step away. It is as simple as that. But it doesn’t mean that I’m not doing anything.”
Teasing a slew of other projects he has been pursuing outside of the band, he went on: “I have two film projects that I’m working on. Just before I left for tour, I was recording another album with another thing. So I have tons of stuff lined up for me [for] the coming years. And also hobbies that I have put aside a little, just because for the last 15 years Ghost has obviously been force majeure. Luckily, my family has been very supportive of that. They know that in order to sort of make this happen, I need to do this. And over the years I’ve been very worried about momentum and just keeping it going because I have so many ideas and I don’t wanna lose speed. And I just came to a point where I’m, like, I’m actually fine if the momentum is not there. It’s cool. I’m good. I feel good about that. If I lose it, okay.”
He further explained that the teenagers are fully aware of his work and the choices he makes, and that they share a close, open relationship. And, now that they’re older, they can express their own experiences too — including what it was like when he was away for long stretches during their childhood.
In the past, long absences were difficult for them to grasp, and leaving often meant slipping out before they woke up, sometimes to the sound of a child crying as he drove off. He admitted those moments were painful, but he always believed he was doing the right thing.
Speaking to Canada’s Global News, he was quizzed on whether a new Ghost EP was on the horizon, responding: “No. As of right now, there is no EP coming. Besides the [ongoing North American leg of the Skeletour] tour that we’re doing now, we have nothing else planned. So the future is right now very open. Creatively, I have a lot to do. I’m actually recording currently, but it’s not a covers EP and it’s not a new Ghost record. So, I actually do not know exactly what and when anything will happen. And that’s a good thing, because for 15 years now we’ve been going at it nonstop, where cycles have basically just sort of been stitched together. Every time we’ve ended an album cycle, I’ve walked off stage knowing that Monday morning I will be in the studio and our next show is there. So it has been that sort of sort cyclical nonstop thinking ahead, thinking forward, expand, expand, expand, expand, for a long time, and I’ve come to a point where I’m just, like… I still have ideas, I still have dreams, I still have things that I think we have not achieved — definitely the wish list is still there — but that’s gonna be at some other point.”