Ghost's frontman Tobias Forge opened up about the band's decision in covering other artists' songs.
After a long wait, Ghost released its five-song cover album, "Phantomime," which features the hit songs by Iron Maiden, Genesis, The Stranglers, Television, and Tina Turner. Although not everyone was happy about the band's move and the outcome of some of its songs, Forge revealed how it feels like to cover other musicians' songs.
Ghost Tobias Forge Shares Approach on Band's Covers
In an interview with France's FIP Metal, Tobias spoke candidly about almost deflating working with covers while feeling whether covering it was truly easy or the band was not efficient.
Instead of recording songs they grew up with, Ghost found itself making covers of other songs they did not listen to when they were younger.
"This time around I think I just wanted to do a little bit more rock-lenient," Forge said. "Obviously, you and Tina Turner in there; that might not have been necessarily a rock song. But I purposely decided to, 'I'm gonna deliver five rock songs that will somehow embody, I guess, the origins of where I come from."
When picking the best songs to cover, the frontman said he chooses those tracks with "something missing" so he can reshape them in his own way.
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For instance, he decided to cover his favorite song, "We Don't Need Another Hero," as he thought the song could be so much more. Forge further explained why Ghost covered the other songs in its most recent album, saying that they did Television's "See No Evil" to create a stand-up version of the track like The Rolling Stones' way.
On the other hand, "Jesus He Knows Me" and "Hanging Around" covers were reportedly made to make it "Ghost-ified."
Forge also commented on Iron Maiden's "Phantom of the Opera," saying that the original version might be "a little bit too all over the place"; thus, he decided to structure it and make it a different version.
Paul Di'Anno Unhappy With Ghost's "Phantom of the Opera" Version
The Ghost frontman's explanation came after Paul Di'Anno expressed his disappointment in a since-deleted post on Facebook regarding the band's cover sounding "sucks."
He revealed that he was asked by his fans to share his thoughts about the recent "Phantom of the Opera" cover, to which he responded that it "fkn sucks."
The former Iron Maiden singer originally recorded the track before he was replaced by Bruce Dickinson in the band.
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