Rock is not “dead”! Tobias Forge (Ghost) believes in the future of the genre and in the arrival of new headliners

While some announce the death of rock. Therefore, Tobias Forge affirms the opposite: for the leader of Ghost, new poster heads will emerge and the ban on phones has profoundly transformed the group’s stage experience in 2025.

“There will be more headliners” : Tobias Forge refuses to believe that rock is dead – Rock not "dead"! tobias forge

In a recent interview with ConsequenceTobias Forge. For example, brain of the Ghost group, responded to the many voices, including that of Gene Simmons, who have been claiming for years that rock is dead. In addition, For him. Consequently, this statement cannot resist the exam: “I think that over time there will be more groups capable of being headliners”he said.

Forge concedes that the rock scene has lost several major figures in recent years. In addition, notably Kiss, but it sees in this disappearance an opportunity for new groups to rise to the top. rock not “dead”! tobias forge Therefore, According to him. Similarly, the problem comes mainly from our relationship to time and generational perceptions: “Everything that emerged after the 2000s continues to be perceived as ‘new’, especially by those who were in their thirties or quarantine at the time and are now 50 or 60”he explains.

He illustrates his point with a simple perspective: “If our first album was released in 1980. In addition, and we were in 1995, we would be considered an old group. It’s the same today. Our 15 -year -old fans see us as an established group, and they are right.”

“Radical upheaval” : the ban on phones has changed everything for Ghost

Beyond the debate on the future of rock. Tobias Forge has also made a radical decision this year: prohibiting phones in the room during the concerts of the tour SkeleTourthanks to the Yondr pocket system. This measure. which aroused some hesitation on the rock not “dead”! tobias forge production side, proved to be decisive for the group: “It completely changed the life of the group. From the first evening. we felt that everything was different”he said during a question and answer session in Birmingham on July 4.

The singer refuses to accuse the spectators head -on. but he denounces a phenomenon of harmful addiction: “Everyone tells themselves that it doesn’t bother if he just takes a photo. But in the end, it’s thousands of raised phones, and the energy of the concert suffers. At one point, I said to myself: if it’s like that, I prefer to stop”.

Forge insists on the importance of emotional exchange between the public. the group: “Our show is very constructed, with little room for improvisation. It is based on this connection with the crowd. Without that, it’s like a thread that breaks”.

A monumental tour for an album at the top

The current tour accompanies the rock not “dead”! tobias forge release of SkeletáGhost’s sixth album. unveiled on April 25. It is an introspective disc centered on themes such as loss. love or hope, that Tobias Forge wrote after a period of burnout at the end of 2024, as he had entrusted in an interview with Metal Hammer.

Skeletá rose to first place in Billboard 200. with more than 44,000 vinyls sold in a week – a feat greeted in this article. In France, the album has reached fourth place in the top albums. The group continues to chain closed counters. and notably gave an immersive concert in Paris on May 13, in an atmosphere “without phones” promoting total communion.

The scenography of the SkeleTourdesigned by Tobias Rylander. transforms each concert into a real Gothic rock opera, with a scene inspired by brutalist architecture and a monumental cross suspended above the group.

If some still doubt the future of rock. Ghost proves each evening rock not “dead”! tobias forge that he can always shine – provided that he can evolve, as Tobias Forge did, by combining artistic ambition, lucidity and total investment.