The almost half-hour video features all members of Eagles of Death Metal that were playing at the venue on Friday 13 November, where gunmen opened fire on the sold out crowd and killed at least 89 people and injured hundreds more. Another crew member spotted the gunman reloading, and yelled to the rest of the band and crew to run. When it became clear what was actually happening the members of the band were able to either hide or make their way off of the stage without being harmed.
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Mr Hughes, 43, said that he came face to face with one of the gunmen as he and a group of fans tried to escape down the “labyrinth”-like corridors of the venue”.
“I want to be the first person to play in the Bataclan when it opens up”, he said.
The Californian rock band were about 30 minutes into the gig when the shooting started.
“I can not wait to get back to Paris”, singer Jesse Hughes told Vice. To Arthur, who ran for his life right beside me and selflessly put us in a taxi before himself, thank you.
Each discusses their recollection of the night, including Hughes’ encounter with one of the shooters whilst searching for his girlfriend, while Homme, who was not on tour with the band at the time, recounts his initial reaction to the news. “I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no. Do not f-king come this way, do not, ‘ and we started heading back down”.
Shawn London, the band’s sound engineer, told VICE that he was situated directly by the doors when the gunmen entered.
“Jesse ran towards me and we went into the corner”.
Matt McJunkins, the bassist, was barricaded in a room backstage with several fans, some of whom had been shot, preparing to use a champagne bottle as a weapon if necessary. “I really needed them to have gotten off stage because I didn’t see what happened to them when we got off”.
“He stayed there and just continued to shoot, and slaughter, and scream at the top of his lungs ‘Allahu Akbar!’“.
And Hughes vowed that the band would finish its tour in honor of those fans – particularly a return to the site of the worst night of their lives. “I want to play again. The killers were able to get in and killed every one of them except for a kid who was hiding under my leather jacket”.
All the band’s musicians survived, but its merchandise manager and three executives from its parent record label, Universal Music Group, were killed.
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And they also pledged to donate the royalties from covers of their music to the victims’ families, challenging music streaming services such as iTunes and Spotify to do the same.
