Eagles of Death Metal Detail Horrific Paris Attack, Offer Support

Eagles of Death Metal have opened up for the first time about the horror they endured when ISIS attackers opened fire on their concert in Paris two weeks ago, killing nearly 100 people. They discussed the split-second decisions they had to make in a new half-hour interview with Vice, as well as how they’re making sense of it now.

Each of the band’s members explained how they scrambled to survive, and how they managed to work through the confusion when the massacre began. “I immediately knew something was wrong,” drummer Julian Dorio said. “I bailed off my stool almost immediately [when I heard the shots]. … I turned, looked through my drum hardware to the side of an amp and that’s when the second round started.”

“At first I thought it was the PA cracking up,” guitarist Eden Galindo said. “I realized real quick that it wasn’t, then I recognized what it was. At that time, [vocalist] Jesse [Hughes] ran towards me and we went in the corner of the stage. We weren’t sure if they were targeting us or what was going on.”

Bassist Matt McJunkins hid for a bit before making his way backstage to a green room. “Someone had left a bottle of champagne in the room for a post-show thing,” he said. “We had that to use [as a weapon]. That’s all we had. There was a woman in front of me. It was scary, because she was bleeding. And there was nothing to do except there was this guy who was holding her, trying to apply pressure on her. … Her blood was running out on the ground.”

Hughes also headed to a dressing room in search of his girlfriend, Tuesday Cross, but couldn’t immediately find her. At one point, he opened a door into a hallway and saw a shooter. “He turned on me, brought his gun down and the barrel hit the doorframe,” the singer said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, fuck.'” Around that time, he also realized that people had been following him, in search of a place to go. “I was like, ‘No, no, no, do not fucking come this way,'” he said. “And we started heading back down [the stairs]. … When Tuesday saw Julian, and I heard her voice, I knew she was cool. And Eden grabbed me. We headed out.” They made their way outside and realized that concertgoers had been pouring into the alley where they were, but were so shocked they didn’t know what to do. “We were like, ‘Move, move, move,'” he recalled. “People just didn’t seem to know what to do.”

Shawn London, the band’s sound engineer, talked about what he witnessed from his vantage point at the “front of the house … where the doors were.” “These kids were having a blast, they were having a great time. The smiling, the dancing, the singing along with each song. And then, out of nowhere, I heard what I thought were these firecrackers directly behind me,” London said. “[The attackers] came in the door, instantly walked in and just started blasting. There was two of them, and instantly people started dropping to the ground. Injuries, death.”

While chaos broke out at the Bataclan, London remained standing behind his console before locking eyes with one of the attackers, who shot at him but missed. “I think he thought I probably got hit … He stayed there and continued to shoot, and shoot, and slaughter, and just scream at the top of his lungs, ‘Allah akbar.’ And that’s when I instantly knew what was going on.”