Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge recently sat down with Planet Rock to discuss his career and influences. During the conversation, Forge named Iron Maiden's "Blood Brothers" as one of the songs that really influenced him as a kid. When asked if Iron Maiden was a big influence overall, he responded "Absolutely" and named the band's 1985 live album Live After Death as the one that made him want to be a musician.
"When I was a kid, I was sitting with Live After Death record and I was dead set on wanting to become a professional musician and I wanted to tour. I knew about the concept of touring, but a lot of my knowledge or my preconceived notions of what I thought touring was about was looking through Live After Death and seeing all those dates that they were playing everywhere.
"I sat there with like a big map book and just drew out how they toured, where they played and how often you play. That record in the inner sleeve, you have a lot of information about touring life."
Forge later added that he wasn't a huge fan of the Blaze Bayley years, and that he missed that era anyway after getting into more extreme music.
"In 1995 when they made the first record with Blaze, I was so buried in death/black metal stuff, and I was so busy exploring what happened in 1985 that I didn't have time for following that. So, of course, I was amazed when Bruce came back into the band and they made this triumphant return. I must say that Brave New World, the comeback record with Bruce, was and still is an unbelievably well-constructed record… That record is actually really good from start to finish. Unbelievable.
"It's incredible that a band 20 years into their professional career were able to still add songs to their already existing and mind-blowingly great repertoire. I think that 'Blood Brothers' is a song that they are still playing at most of their shows, but they could easily play 10 songs from that record."
