Ghost mainman Tobias Forge admits that his teenage self would be filled with “utter amazement” at the fact that he now considers the members of Metallica his friends.
“I have moments when I’ve been on tour with them, or worked with them, where the older, slightly more blasé version of myself gets a little tap on the shoulder from my younger self: ‘This is fucking cool!’” Forge admits in the next issue of Metal Hammer magazine. “My older brother was a Metallica fan, so they were always present when I was growing up. I actually had a poster from Metal Hammer on my wall - it had the Jump In The Fire demon on it, but with a Master Of Puppets-era picture.”
With the release of The Metallica Blacklist album today, the world can now hear Forge pay homage to his heroes/friends, with Ghost contributing a typically dramatic version of the lead single from ‘The Black Album’, Enter Sandman.
“We’d been asked to play Enter Sandman when Metallica were at [Swedish awards ceremony] The Polar Prize a few years back,” Forge reveals, explaining the band’s choice of cover. “We said, ‘Can we choose which song?’ They said, ‘Well, you can choose, but we really want you to do Enter Sandman. If you’re going to open the show, we want you to play their biggest song.’ So when talk of this record came about, it made sense.”
“Like most people, Enter Sandman was the first thing I heard [on Metallica]. As soon as it came on MTV or the radio, I would just stop: ‘Here comes this song again.’ It was unique and powerful and just very rocking.”
You can read more from Tobias Forge on his life-long love of Metallica and how they influenced Ghost in the next issue of Metal Hammer magazine.
And you can see every single song on The Metallica Blacklist ranked from worst to best right here.
