Ghost frontman Tobias Forge has looked back on the debilitating food poisoning which caused him to cancel a Mexico concert last September.
Talking exclusively in the upcoming issue of Metal Hammer, Forge, 45, says that he landed in Mexico City five days before the Swedish hard rock band’s three-show leg at the Palacio de los Deportes venue was set to begin, so he could acclimatise to the altitude and jet lag.
However, on the day of the first gig, he slept for the entire hour-long drive to the venue, then was unable to keep food down. The performance that night was due to be filmed for the band’s upcoming concert film/documentary 2 Big To Rig, which will be released in cinemas later this month.
“For every hour that went by I was getting more and more drained,” Forge recalls. “And then, all of a sudden, I started puking violently. Everything, just, ‘Out, out, out!’ Everyone’s getting super-nervous: not only is the show dependent on this, but we also have a film depending on this! Fuck!”
He adds: “And so about two hours before the show starts, it was clear that I couldn’t stand up. I was lying on the floor, dizzy and hurling.”
Forge says that he hates to cancel shows – especially when the crowd have already gathered outside the venue, as they had that day – but that his inability to stand left him with no other option.
“Even if you get me up onstage, I will not be able to sing,” he continues. “Then you just have to do the rational thing: ‘Fuck this, we need to pull the plug.’ The rest of the evening, I was just lying on a stretcher with intravenous liquid going in. And then you have to handle the defeat and hope for people to understand.”
Fortunately, Ghost’s second and third Mexico City performances were able to go ahead as planned. Forge (performing under the guise of Papa V Perpetua) joked onstage at his return show on September 24, “At the end of the day, I am just a gringo [Latin American term for ‘outsider’], coming here with my army, asking for too much. So no wonder I got hit by the curse of Montezuma!”
The band adjusted their 2 Big To Rig filming plans so that they could take footage from the other two shows. Forge admits that the change put extra pressure on the remaining nights.
“Luckily, Amir [Chamdin, 2 Big To Rig director] is a very controlled, very nice person,” he says. “He was like, ‘Just relax, we’ll figure it out’, and the next day I felt better and ready to do it. So we had to deal with what we got, but obviously, it goes without saying: ‘We better not fuck up now!’ If you’re going to go up and do that thing, you need to nail it.”
2 Big To Rig will hit cinema and IMAX screens around the world from August 26. Tickets are available to order online. Unlike Ghost’s 2024 film Rite Here Rite Now, which mixed concert footage with an original story connected to their mythos, it will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the masked band’s live production.
Ghost are currently on hiatus, as Forge hopes to spend more time with his family and gain inspiration for future projects.
“I’ve had two kids waiting at home with my wife for 15 years,” the singer told Full Metal Jackie. “And maybe that says something about me that it wasn’t a pushing enough factor during those years. Believe me, I felt bad, but I’ve definitely come to a point where I feel, physically and mentally, I need to be home. [My kids are] 17; they’re not gonna be around for an eon.”
Ghost aren’t the only heavy band who’ve recently had to alter concert film recording plans on the fly. This summer, Iron Maiden were filming their show in Paris when the venue was hit by a power outage and the band had to cut their set short. The missing songs were captured later in the tour, at their self-curated festival Eddfest in Knebworth, UK.
Read the full interview with Forge in the upcoming Hammer, which will be available to order from Thursday, August 20.