Ghost’s Tobias Forge recently opened up about his early musical influences and how they shaped his understanding of English. He shared his thoughts during an interview on Q With Tom Power.
The Swedish musician reflected on his formative years and how 1980s metal bands became his unlikely English teachers.
“The big year for me that I think I can sort of go back to where my consciousness of culture is, is 1984, when I’m three years old, and the coolest thing on the planet is like Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister, WASP, and KISS,” Forge said. “KISS was probably, you know, they were in 1984, it was like Heaven’s on Fire. They were sort of like, they had just sort of shifted into this different band. I was all about the makeup band.”
He continued to describe the impact these bands had on him as a child, particularly their chart success and cultural significance.
“The others were like on the charts, big pop acts at the time. They were the shit. You know, I Wanna Be Somebody and Stay Hungry and Shout at the Devil and Looks That Kill. I mean, they always had a, especially the first two Mötley records, have always been, you know, very held with high regard in my home,” he explained.
Forge drew connections between the simplistic nature of these bands’ messages and his three-year-old mindset at the time.
“I guess that, you know, if you look at what WASP, Mötley Crüe, and Twisted Sister and KISS, but definitely with the first three bands there were in 1984, you look at them and you look at their expression and what they looked like and what they represented. I mean, it’s pretty, it’s pretty close to what a three-year-old would say, you know, ‘I Wanna Rock.’ Looks that kill. I don’t remember how much I understood. I understood I Wanna Rock. We’re not gonna take, but I learned so much as well,” Forge said.
The Ghost frontman then detailed how these songs became his English learning tools, despite English not being his native language.
“Like, now I’m talking like linguistically in terms of, obviously, English not being my mother’s tongue here. You know, I was asking all the time, what does this mean? What does this mean? What is a hurricane? Rock you like a hurricane. You know, I learned so much by listening. Looks that kill. What does that mean? I had a very educational family who sort of told me what the lyrics were about or what it said,” he recalled.
Forge also shared some confusion he experienced with certain song titles and how the visual aspects of these bands influenced his personal style.
“I know that there’s this little detail in the title that, that’s kind of weird that I definitely picked up on later. Shout at the devil? What? Shout with the devil. God damn it. Don’t really get that. I thought, and you know, I looked at the pictures as well. You know, I have pictures of myself that age dressed up like them. You know, with torn up stuff. I thought that they were the look. I mean, I’m talking about Mötley Crüe specifically, what they looked like in the spread and on the back of the record. I was like, that’s how you should look. That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I want hair like that. Well, I mean,” he concluded.
