You can count Halestorm's Lzzy Hale among the masses drawn to Ghost in recent years. During a chat with Rock Sound TV (seen below), the vocalist heaped effusive praise upon the band and frontman Tobias Forge, calling the singer a "genius" and "the most interesting person" that she's ever met.
"This new album [Impera] I've listened to about 20 times now, and I'm obsessed with it as well," revealed Hale.
Earlier in the discussion she talked about first meeting Forge and being asked to be a "nun" at one of the band's shows in St. Louis, not fully knowing the band's history and catalog. But soon after that experience, "Square Hammer" was released and she was immediately drawn to their music from then moving forward.
Further sharing her love for Ghost's combination of music and presentation, Hale states, "I love just the idea that you can have this heavy music that's almost religious satire and it has this comedic aspect to it and a smile, but also if you've ever been to a Ghost concert, there are people that legit think they're worshipping Satan… Like they go into full worship mode. I just love all of those things together, in a nice little package, with this band."
Speaking further about frontman Tobias Forge, Hale remarked that he was a "genius," adding, "He's such a smart man ... If you get to have a conversation [with him], he's the most interesting person, I think, that I've ever met — very well spoken."
Elaborating on that idea, she recalls of the singer, "What I admire about him… I don't think I know any other band that does this, but Tobias always has a plan — he's thinking about five years ahead, where he needs to be with this band and this project. I remember talking with Nick Raskulinecz, the same producer that just did our last record; he also did an album with Ghost. I remember him talking to me about how Tobias would show him all of these songs that were not meant for this specific record; they were meant for two records down the line. 'Cause he has a timeline and he has the story already figured out and all of the production already figured out. And [Nick] was, like, 'Oh, these are such great songs. We should record them.' And Tobias was, like, 'No. The world isn't ready yet.' [Laughs]"
She added that Forge has also given her advance insights into where things are going as well. "He's shown me some production drawings and little things that he's gonna be doing a couple of years from now. And then a couple of years would go by and we would go and see them, and we'd be like, 'Oh, yeah. That was that thing he was talking about. That's amazing,'" explained Hale. "So just to be able to think like that I really admire, as far as just a career plan and a mission statement. Because I am completely not like that. I've tried the five-year-plan thing. And every time I make plans, we finally get to that point and something has changed, so I have to pivot and do something different. So I'm more of a living-in-the-now person. [Laughs] So we're the complete opposite, me and Tobias, in that aspect, but I definitely admire him for the way that he is."
Hale isn't the only one praising Forge these days, with Judas Priest's Rob Halford recently proclaiming, "The guy's a great talent, fantastic performer onstage. … The records are wonderful; I've been following his career."
Check out more of the discussion below and in a piece in Rock Sound's magazine, available now.
Lzzy Hale Talks to Rock Sound About Ghost
