Ghost’s Tobias Forge was “furious” over venue banning face paint

Xavi Torrent/Redferns

Ghost frontman Tobias Forge has shared his thoughts regarding the band’s August show in St. Louis, which made headlines after the venue banned fans from bringing in face paint.

If you’ve been to a Ghost show, then you know that fans often paint their faces to pay homage to the band’s characters and mythology. However, the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre told fans they couldn’t bring any face paint into the venue, later calling the situation a “miscommunication.”

“I was furious,” Forge tells Metal Hammer. “The story that I heard was that it was an initiative taken by some of the security people, who didn’t approve of the band. They didn’t like what we were doing so they wanted to be mean to these kids, and those kids were really, really upset with that.”

“They told them it was a band requirement,” he continues. “That was upsetting to me. We would never ask that of our fans. We want them to dress up, we want them to come and have fun.”

Forge adds that he’s particularly sensitive to the feelings of Ghost fans, sharing, “Over the years, I’ve come to understand that a lot of our fanbase are, in one way or another, outsiders or that their lives are lonely or they’re struggling with something.”

“It feels like there’s a lot of hurt among our fanbase, and I want to address that,” Forge says. “They’ve found a kind of belonging being in this group of Ghost fans.”