Many musicians have had something to say when it comes to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including Tobias Forge of Ghost. As reported by Loudwire, in a recent interview with KLAQ 95.5 in El Paso, TX, the Ghost frontman comments on Russia’s actions and Russian president Putin’s motivations.
In the interview, Forge says the following:
“We have distanced ourselves from the actual circularity of things and the cyclic nature of everything. Therefore it comes as a shock to us that something as barbaric and old-school as war and the threat of war and the threat of authoritarianism and Biblical wrath or pandemics… it actually comes every now and then, as they’ve always done, as they always will. The circularity I’ve been trying to talk about just happens to coincide now with what eventually will fall… the empire [Russia] that will fall because of this, I think, and hope.
“I already knew several years ago that I was going to make, at some point, a record about empires. It’s about the repetitive nature of empires in general and how their self-destruction mechanisms are to blame for its ultimate destruction and annihilation.”
When it comes to Putin’s motivations, Forge said, “I’m a nostalgic person myself. When I go into my inner sanctum, it’s the days before Internet, it’s VHS, and I’m far away from every responsibility. I’m just watching VHS films with the stereo on at the same time, sitting and drawing. That’s my safe place. Same way on the other side of the world, there’s this guy that dreams of grey skies and an old Soviet Union where he was a KGB officer and maybe he got a little more sense of purpose breaking people’s arms… whatever he did, I have no idea, but maybe that was his happy place, the same way that I dream of the summer of 1993 being one of my happy places.”
Forge is one of the many artists to call out Putin, with both Gene Simmons of Kiss and Twisted Sister‘s Dee Snider also sharing some words.
Kiss’s Gene Simmons Calls Putin A Liar, Joins Other Artists In Support For Ukraine
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Words by: Michael Pementel
