Brow Beat

Eagles of Death Metal Give Their Frightening, Firsthand Account of the Paris Shootings

Earlier this month, during a performance by American rock band Eagles of Death Metal, three shooters killed over 80 people in a terrorist attack on Paris’ Bataclan concert hall. The band’s members all survived the shooting, and they’ve now given their first interview about the attack to Vice, detailing over 25 minutes their memory of the event and their subsequent wrestling with such enormous tragedy.

Their account is incredibly graphic, and includes visceral retellings of how each member scrambled to survival: Singer Jesse Hughes actually came face-to-face with one of the gunmen, and bassist Matt McJunkins notes that the gunfire went on “for 10, 15 minutes, it just didn’t stop.” The band wants to be the very first to play the Bataclan when it re-opens, with Hughes concluding: “Our friends went there to see rock and roll and died. I want to go back and live.”

Read more of Slate’s coverage of the Paris attacks.