Behemoth’s Nergal Explains Accidentally Unmasking Ghost’s Tobias Forge in 2014

In 2014, Behemoth's Nergal uploaded a photo on Instagram of himself posing with a then-unmasked Tobias Forge, the mastermind behind Ghost. He quickly took it down, realizing what he had done and has now recalled that moment in a recent interview.

The incident took place at the FortaRock Festival where both Behemoth and Ghost performed. In the post, which showed both frontman wearing sunglasses, the Behemoth leader wrote, "If you have ghosts... you have everything" with a winking face next to the caption.

Speaking with Ultimate-Guitar, Nergal expressed regret over the mishap and explained what went down behind the scenes once that post went live for all to see a full three years before it was officially confirmed that Tobias Forge was the man behind Ghost.

"Kristen [Mulderig] - his manager and my good friend - she was, like, 'Oh, shit! Don't do that! Please remove it!' So I removed it but, obviously, it was too late," said the Behemoth frontman.

"I was... look, to be completely frank with you, I'm very spontaneous when it comes to social media, which is probably one of the reasons why it's so popular and why people did that - there is no manager behind it, there is no hired gun behind it," he added, continuing, "It's Adam 'Nergal' Darski that's just being himself, just being spontaneous. I'm just basically showing a part of my world. I'm sharing that with the universe. That's it, you know? I mean, I'm showing as much as I can. But it's honest."

Nergal admitted his absent-mindedness when he explained, "I wasn't really thinking twice when doing that. Obviously, I didn't put, 'Tobias Forge with me' or whatever; I just put a caption, like, 'If you have Ghost, you have everything." The caption is a line taken from Ghost's cover of Roky Erickson's "If You Have Ghosts," which was released on Ghost's 2013 EP, If You Have Ghost.

"But maybe that was too much of a hint for people," Nergal said, realizing his post lacked subtlety. "I mean, people have known before [this incident]," he went on, noting, "If you just Googled it prior to (my Instagram post), his face was out there. The speculations were going on for years, and people would guess who he is. Somehow, I put the dot over 'i,' which I'm sorry for."

As for Forge's reaction, the Behemoth frontman recalled, "I texted Tobias shortly after, but he was, like, 'Ah, man... It's fine, it's cool. I mean, it's gonna happen sooner or later, so fuck it.'"

Forge officially revealed he was indeed the driving force behind Ghost and the silky voice behind the Papa Emeritus figures (and now Cardinal Copia) in the summer of 2017 after former members took legal action against him in court over what they claimed to be unpaid compensation for their involvement in the band.

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