GHOST frontman Tobias Forge has slammed bands who cancel their tours due to monetary reasons but blame the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the world begins to see numerous restrictions being lifted, we are also seeing tour announcements essentially returning to as they were pre-pandemic.
In a new talk with “Drinks With Johnny“, the online talk show hosted by AVENGED SEVENFOLD‘s Johnny Christ, GHOST mainman Tobias Forge pointed out his issues with bands that are now canceling tours due to not being satisfied with the amount of money to be made and blaming COVID-19.
Forge said: “Well, the problem now is that a lot of these bands find the bottom line not to be satisfactory. They don’t go out and say, ‘Look, we’re not making as much money as we wish, so we’re going to cancel or we’re going to postpone till the stars are aligned and the marketplace looks better.’
He continued: “They go on and tell the crowd, ‘Oh, because of safety concerns we’re not touring,’ and that is a fucking horrible message to the crowd, to the rest of the business to everyone that we’re all relying on – as in all the promoters and everyone working at the venues, everybody working as vendors, all the crew members, all the busing companies, all the truck companies, all these people who just had their tour canceled just because these four or five dudes/girls just decided that the money wasn’t great. And then they go out and tell ‘Oh, by the way, don’t even go to shows because it’s not safe.’
He added: “That is what becomes if one band decides to go and say like, ‘No, [it’s] because of safety, it’s not safe to tour because of COVID.’ Of course, you’re sending a message to the crowd that ‘Oh, maybe it’s not [safe]… And it takes a lot of courage for a lot of people to go out. It takes a lot of courage for people to go to show to a show. And when one band goes out and says, ‘Oh, we’re not going to tour because of safety concerns, because the world is not a safe place because of COVID.’ It does say to the fan that ‘Oh, maybe that’s right. I shouldn’t even go out now.'”
GHOST‘s latest album, “Impera”, was released on March 11 and was produced by Klas Åhlund with mixing by Andy Wallace.
Tobias Forge worked on the follow-up to 2018’s “Prequelle” with Åhlund and Swedish co-writers Salem Al Fakir and Vincent Pontare, whose credits include Madonna and Lady Gaga.