Ghost have finally rid themselves of the “BC” suffix they’d been forced to use as part of their name in the US.
The change was made in 2013 after label officials got worried about potential rights claims over the Swedish band’s original title – even though one of the Nameless Ghouls says none were ever raised.
The Ghoul tells Loudwire: “There was never a lawsuit. Unfortunately, in the legal world in general – and it’s not an anti-American thing – people are so conscious about being sued.
“The major label had a policy that every artist must own their own name. Obviously we don’t have exclusive rights to our name because it’s a word so commonly used. There are so many brands that have the word ‘ghost’ that I think it’s almost un-ownable, in a way. So it was basically a demand from the label that we added something.”
Afterwards, they had to continually stress that the shorter name was the correct one. “We added the ‘BC’ ‘Because of Copyright’ or ‘Before Christ,’” says the Ghoul. “We wanted people to still focus on Ghost. Unfortunately that leaked over into the promotional side too. Because they tagged everything ‘Ghost BC’ everyone started calling it that.
“We told every promoter and every journalist that we spoke to, ‘Don’t write Ghost BC because that’s not our name.’ It’s like saying, ‘I’m going to go down to McDonalds LLC or McDonalds, Inc to buy a burger.”
The band eventually pushed for a change back via “a bit of a flip” that took place within the label. “We took the opportunity to raise the question and make it happen so that we don’t have to write it out on the record,” says the Ghoul.
“There’s something extremely unromantic that’s called metadata, and within the metadata it’s still ‘BC.’
“It’s there in the fine print – but for you and I and everybody else, we don’t have to say that. So it’s Ghost now, which I’m extremely happy about.”
The band launch third album Meliora on August 21and the Reading and Leeds Festivals the following week. Lead single, Cirice, has been followed by From The Pinnacle To The Pit. Ghost are featured in the latest edition of Classic Rock, on sale now in print and digital and via TeamRock+.
