Songfacts®:

• Ghosts elicit fear or foreboding in most of us, but for Yungblud, they're inspiring. After all, the temporary nature of life means we should live it to the fullest, right? That way, when we become ghosts, we'll have stories to tell.
  
  "I was walking down the banks of the River Thames in London, and I was wondering: how many people have walked where I have walked?" he explained to Rolling Stone. "How many ghosts have walked where I have walked? It was this image of ghosts passing me, or someone in 20 years or 100 years passing me. 'Choose life and don't forget to live. Don't forget to feel the air on your face. Don't forget to f--king enjoy every experience you feel.' It's really cool to be alive — it's confusing and it hurts, but it's a beautiful thing."
• "Ghosts" is one of eight tracks on the Idols album that features the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This is the first time Yungblud used an orchestra in the studio, although he did use one for a live version of his song "Hope For The Underrated Youth" in 2019.
• The song ends with a rousing instrumental outro that lasts about three minutes, pushing the runtime to 6:26. This section is filled with strings from the London Philharmonic and also hand claps courtesy of various folks Yungblud brought into the studio to give it a live feel.
  
  This section was inspired by music from the musical The King And I and was designed to make the song a stadium stomper when played live. "I want to envision that stadium with me when you have your headphones in," he told Rolling Stone. "When you are in a room full of 25,000 people outdoors, and you're all there for a mutual reason, I have never felt calmer - even if the music is sporadic and mental. I felt calm. That's why we did that with the outro."
• Yungblud wrote the song with his producer, Matt Schwartz, who has been with him since his debut album. Schwartz co-wrote all the songs on the Idols album.
• Yungblud released a performance video of the song recorded live at Hansa Studios with the orchestra. In the video, he really explores the space, wandering through the control room during the outro.
• "Ghosts" is part of Yungblud's fourth album, Idols, which he considers a reboot of sorts. "I hit 27 and I thought the first iteration of Yungblud had come to a close and come to an end," he told Gibson. "I really wanted to create something that would stretch the imagination right now and, fundamentally, attempt something classic and timeless. Not to sound like the past, but to take the listener out of any period of time."