Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge has a pretty large goal – be as big as Metallica was on their …And Justice For All tour. In an interview with AL.com, Forge discusses how incredible it is that Ghost has become as big as they have despite rock not being the most popular music in the mainstream. Forge also notes that getting the band to this point has been a combination of help from major rock stars, as well as being the vision of one person (which he seems to reference the band’s split with a lot of its members back in 2017)

“I think there are various reasons. And it all combined in alignment, sort of created the sum our career. But I think our sound and our way of not writing the same record every time, but still having a signature DNA in it has helped. I think it has helped we have consistently tried to bring a show to the people. It defies logic for a lot of bands, I think, to try to expand beyond their means.

“But that was aided by the fact that I was the only one that invested and everybody else was paid. [Laughs] If we had people voting on everything, it would not have happened this way. Because I was so determined that, yeah, I want to be what Metallica was in the’ 80s, on the …And Justice For All tour. That sort of band or like Powerslave with Iron Maiden. That sort of fucking theater and playing arenas.

“And I’ve always been very, very influenced by Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones. As much as I’m a sucker and grew up listening to really obscure, very extreme death-metal, I also have a huge alignment and childhood love with big-ass arena rock.

“And in this day and age, especially when rock isn’t the flavor of the day, I think it has behooved us that we’ve sort of moved against the pack. When we were debutantes, it was still that like emo-core going on, and we stood out like a sore thumb.

“Somehow, we were lucky enough people started embracing us as well, even though we weren’t part of any major music movement. Maybe there was a murmur about an underground occult-rock thing going on at the time. But that was at such a low level that wouldn’t have affected people in general.

“But then a lot of kudos and credit I must give to Duff McKagan, James Hetfield, Phil Anselmo, Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains and Dave Grohl, of course. All those guys took us on tours. They lifted up the band Ghost, onto their stages and put us in front of a lot of people. Without that, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Ghost is currently on the road with Spiritbox and Mastodon. Get those dates below.

9/6 – Tampa, FL – Yuengling Arena [Tickets]9/8 – Danville, VA – Blue Ridge Rock Fest (no Mastodon) [Tickets]9/9 – Trenton, NJ – CURE Insurance Arena [Tickets]9/10 – Belmont Park, NY – UBS Arena [Tickets]9/12 – Providence, RI – Dunkin Donuts Center [Tickets]9/13 – Bangor, ME – Cross Insurance Center [Tickets]9/15 – Quebec City, QC – Videotron Centre [Tickets]9/16 – Laval, QC – Place Bell [Tickets]9/17 – Toronto, ON – Coca Cola Coliseum [Tickets]9/19 – Saginaw, MI – Dow Event Center [Tickets]9/20 – Youngstown, OH – Covelli Centre [Tickets]9/21 – Peoria, IL – Peoria Civic Center Arena [Tickets]9/23 – Green Bay, WI – Resch Center (w/ Carcass, no Mastodon) [Tickets]