Ghost frontman reaffirms band is a "solo" project

Ghost frontman Papa Emeritus, aka Tobias Forge, is reasserting the fact that Ghost is more solo project than band in a new chat with CBS Philadelphia.

Read more: Ghost lawsuit: Former Nameless Ghouls revealed, statement issued

The Ghost mastermind, who performs onstage as the Satanic priest Emeritus, always conducts interviews under the guise of one of the group’s Nameless Ghouls, the masked musicians who make up the act’s backing band.

As covered by AP, four former Nameless Ghouls—who would normally remain anonymous in line with the band’s mythology—outed themselves in a recent lawsuit against Papa for “missing wages and allowances for several years.”

In the latest interview promoting Ghost’s tour with Iron Maiden, Emeritus nearly gives up the pretense, explaining that he’s the band’s founder and songwriter who’s seen “about 10 to 15 people … in and out of the band.”

“I have been in the band since I started the band,” he says. “I started writing songs for it in 2006.”

Emeritus also expands on the conflict that naturally arises when anonymous band members are acutely aware of their seemingly replaceable status.

“It’s never really been a band in the classic sense,” he says, “in that you have someone who plays his or hers instrument and that she or he is the only person in the world that can make it sound like that. People, have a tendency to want to feel that they’re very important for something. If it’s not crucial that they’re there, there will also be a little bit of a friction there.”

The denouement? Papa essentially confirms that Ghost is a solo project with a rotating cast of musicians. (transcription via Theprp.com)

“I actually refer to it as the earlier of the two options,” Emeritus replies when asked if Ghost is a solo project or a band. “Even though I’ve never wanted it that way, but at the end of the day, that is what it is.”

“Call it solo, if you want to, but I call it a project.”

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