Tobias Forge Anger When He Knows GHOST Concert Venues Bans Spectators From Using Face Paint

JAKARTA - GHOST band leader Tobias Forge was angry after knowing two months ago that the venue in St. Louis forbade fans to enter at the entrance to his band concert and asked them to remove any facial paint.

Two days before the concert, Hollywood Casino Amphitheater in Maryland Heights revealed through social media that "face paints or masks covering their faces WILL NOT be allowed when entering the venue or buying goods at concessions. Any face covering must be removed at that time at the request," the policy said.

Although the facial paint policy was publicly stated, many band fans who arrived at the concert realized that they violated the policy and were refused entry or ordered to remove facial paint by the venue staff.

This resulted in general confusion about what was allowed and what was not allowed, where a GHOST fan woman reported on Instagram that "the base of her makeup was too thin and was considered facial paint so I was given makeup tissue and was told that the white eye contact lens didn't help."

Another fan wrote on Facebook: "It's strange we don't see anyone having a problem. We've been in the VIP queue for more than an hour with people wearing makeup. They're all past security. And no one has said a word to them. It hurts. I've even attended the KISS show there too... people are wearing KISS makeup."

The next day, Hollywood Casino Amphitheater released a statement. They apologized for the confusion and clarified that GHOST was not behind the facial paint policy.

The fans who "are having problems" at the concert were urged to contact the venue via email to help "enhancing" services at the next concert.

In a new interview with Metal Hammer magazine, Forge reacted to reports of GHOST fans being asked to remove facial paint.

"I'm very angry," he said. The story I hear is that this is an initiative taken by some security officers, which the band doesn't agree with. They don't like what we do so they want to be bad to these kids, and they're really annoyed with that.

"They told the audience it was a band requirement," he continued. "It annoyed me. We would never ask our fans for it. We wanted them to dress up, we wanted them to come and have fun."

Forge explained why he was so sensitive to the feelings of GHOST fans by saying over the years he began to understand the many GHOST fan bases as lonely people or they were struggling with something.

"It feels like there are a lot of wounds between our fan bases, and I want to deal with them. They have found a kind of sense of belonging to this GHOST fan group," concluded the leader.