Ghost Singer Calls Out Bands Who Postpone Shows Over COVID Concerns, But Are Really Doing So For Financial Benefit

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Ghost singer Tobias Forge is not shy to share an opinion or two. Recently, the Ghost singer shared his frustration when it comes to bands canceling and postponing live events for the sake of their own financial benefit.

During a recent conversation with Avenged Sevenfold bassist Johnny Christ – on Christ’s web show Drinks With Johnny – the two got into a discussion about touring and making money from touring. Johnny Christ starts off by talking about payouts involved with touring – what ends up coming back to the individual artists themselves after everything is split. But this sets Forge off to talk about a problem he sees currently in the industry.

Ghost singer Tobias Forge per the Drinks With Johnny show:

“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 that, ‘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.’

“They go on and tell the crowd that, ‘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.’”

Forge continues:

“That is what becomes if one band decides to go and say like, ‘No, [it is] 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 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.’”

What are your thoughts on what the Ghost singer had to say? You can find the full conversation between the Ghost singer and Avenged Sevenfold bassist below.

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Words by: Michael Pementel