Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge recently appeared on Loudwire Nights as he was asked to share his thoughts on Metallica’s alleged ticket scam. Billboard issued an extensive report this past July which has sparked a conspiracy on how the band were apparently engaged in the ticket resale market. This allegation is based off of an audio of a secretly recorded phone call from February 2017, just days before Metallica announced their WorldWired North American stadium tour. The conversation was between Live Nation president of U.S concerts Bob Roux and event promoter Vaughn Millette as the conversation revealed the band’s representative Tony DiCoiccio managed to sell 88,000 concert tickets directly on resale sites.    

Forge commented:

“Probably. I have no idea. I’ve understood that the world of ticketing is a science, and that’s a science practiced by many peddlers outside of our reach, which is a problem. It’s a problem, because it tempers with the relationship between the artist and the fans, because, unfortunately, it can affect a fan very negatively. But also the thought and the impression from the fans thinking that it’s the work of the artist. And as far as I know, I’ve never known of an artist that did so intentionally. It’s usually some other service that did it.

Over the years of online sales, there have been many, many controversies of this sort. And I’m also speaking as a citizen of Sweden, and I’m assuming that we have these issues in every country, but just in Sweden, there was, like, a lot of alternative sort of web sites. Before the official tickets were restricted down to three or four or two or five per purchase, you had these pages that bought thousands of tickets. I remember, like, 10, 15, 20 years ago, it was insane — you could go to a show that was sold out and still, there was, like, 70 percent there. It’s, like, that doesn’t add up.

I find it sad to hear when that happens. I’m not commenting on what they [Metallica] are, because I don’t know anything about that situation. But I know that there’s a lot of things going on and a lot of… As with anything in society now, there’s always shysters that try to come up with ways to put themselves and their business between, let’s say, the producer and the client. Same thing with Uber and all these kinds of apps that just put themselves in between what usually has been a normal trade affair. But it seems like there’s very little that you can do about it. Especially if you’re one of the parts. There’s nothing, as an artist — especially on my level — there’s nothing that I can do to change that business.”