Written by Ghost frontman Tobias Forge has reflected on the problems that his old masks gave him onstage, likening performing in them to “running 100 metres in flip-flops”.
In a new interview with Global News, the singer/multi-instrumentalist is asked about the half-face mask that he’s been using since adopting his ‘Papa V Perpetua’ persona last year for the Skeletá album cycle.
He says that he enjoys the new freedom that the mask gives him, as opposed to the restriction he felt when he wore full-face masks for Ghost’s tours from 2010 through to the early 2020s
“Over the years of wearing various silicon mask on my face, I’ve often felt as if I were being asked to do something semi-professionally athletic while wearing flip-flops,” he answers. “‘Here, run 100m on time in flip-flops. Here, play football or ice hockey in flip-flops.’ It’s like, I am not a great singer who can play or sing in any band, but I know I’m definitely a better singer than the mask allowed me to be.”
Forge adds that singing onstage is a full-body exercise, where the singer needs to be able to “make faces” and “work with your neck and throat”: things he couldn’t do when he had a full mask. “Mentally, it was a little bit of a shift: a big step for me,” he summarises.
Forge has previously spoken about the difficulties he had with full-face masks, telling Metal Hammer last year that he suffered a panic attack onstage in 2015 because he felt claustrophobic in what he was wearing.
“I was told there was only one entrance into the venue; you had to walk in on the right side of the stage, past the stage, and then into a backstage area,” he remembered. “So, essentially, you couldn’t get out. You were locked in. That was what I was told. And I didn’t think of it until during the show, when all of a sudden I was like, ‘I need to know where the door is… I can’t get to the door. Stop! Stop! Get the mask off!’”
Forge has since said that he hopes to start scuba diving to come to terms with his claustrophobia. “I’ve always been very ‘maritime’ and drawn to the ocean. In my alternative life, I’m a wreck diver!” he said last year.
Elsewhere in the Global News interview, Forge talks about the production for the ongoing Skeletour world tour, saying it has more in common with a Lady Gaga show than “many other rock bands”.
“I think that we’re in a good place right now with the production,” he says. “What the Skeletour ended up being in terms of production value is very near, conceptually, what I’ve had in my mind for quite a long time, with respect to how I wanted the show to evolve through different stages or acts, if you will.”
Ghost had to cancel the first three shows of the 2026 Skeletour North American leg last week due to a major winter storm. However, the remainder of the tour is scheduled to proceed as planned, kicking off at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut on Wednesday (January 28). See all dates and get tickets via the Ghost website.
