In a recent interview with The Music, Tobias Forge had a discussion about a Genesis song written by Phil Collins. During the conversation, the musician reflected on the extraordinary accuracy of the lyrics in portraying its subject matter.
Ghost released a cover version of ‘Jesus He Knows Me’ in April as the first single from their upcoming album. The track, originally released by Genesis in 1992, took a satirical look at televangelism. Talking about the motivation behind covering the song, Forge revealed that the lyrics’ accuracy and relevance after so many years were both intriguing and terrifying.
In fact, the vocalist mentioned that it would have been deemed ‘outdated‘ a decade ago. Tobias shared that during his tours in America, he was frequently asked about Christian fundamentalism and related topics. Although the musician did not see it firsthand, he believed there was ‘a sort of undercurrent of that stuff‘ present in the continent.
His words on the matter went as follows:
“It’s frighteningly horrible. It’s easy not to laugh about the accuracy with which Phil Collins wrote a lyric that ten years ago felt almost dated, even outdated, which now feels so contemporary and important.
When we started touring America, I was asked so many times, ‘Do you have a problem with the Christian fundamentalists or picket fencers or any of that stuff?’ I was like, ‘No, never.’ Like, there seems to be a sort of undercurrent of that stuff over there. I didn’t see that; we were all over the place, even in the South, and definitely a lot in the heartland.”
As we enjoy Ghost’s version of ‘Jesus He Knows Me,’ the band’s full album is on its way to release. ‘Phantomime,’ which includes covers of four other songs from different bands and musicians, will be out on May 18.
