Story highlights
89 people were killed in a terror attack at an Eagles of Death Metal concert in Paris
The band's singer says fans tried to hide in dressing room but were killed; one survived
In first interview since attack, singer Jesse Hughes says fans died trying to save each other
The lead singer of rock band Eagles of Death Metal has described how fans were slaughtered in the group’s dressing room as they tried to hide from Islamist gunmen during the Paris terror attacks.
Jesse Hughes, the frontman for the California-based alternative rock group, said just one person in the dressing room survived – a fan who hid under the singer’s leather jacket.
“Several people hid in our dressing room and the killers were able to get in and killed every one of them, except for a kid who was hiding under my leather jacket,” Hughes said, in an emotional interview with Vice.
The interview was the first the group has given since 89 people were killed, and more 100 injured, when gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed their concert at Bataclan theater on November 13, taking hostages.
Among those killed was 36-year-old Briton Nick Alexander, merchandising manager for the band’s European tour, and Thomas Ayad, Marie Mosser and Manu Perez, who worked at Universal Music France, the band’s label.
His voice breaking, Hughes described how fans lost their lives trying to save each other during the attacks.
“People were playing dead and they were so scared,” he said. “A great reason why so many were killed is because so many people wouldn’t leave their friends. … So many people put themselves in front of people.”
Vice released a short clip of the interview with Hughes and co-founder Josh Homme, who is also the lead singer of popular alternative rock band Queens of the Stone Age, ahead of the release of the full interview this week.
Earlier the band had released a statement on social media mourning the loss of life and insisting that “love overshadows evil.”
In the wake of the attacks, fans on social media urged people to buy or stream the band’s cover of Duran Duran’s 1982 hit “Save a Prayer” in a bid to push the track to the top of the UK charts as “a statement of peace, love, and support.”
