It had to be the “best concert of the tour”, this November 13, 2015. The American band Eagles of Death Metal, EODM for the fans, performs at the Bataclan, in Paris. Six and a half years later, singer Jesse Hughes and the band’s former guitarist, Eden Galindo, testified at trial to the attacks that killed 130 people that night, including 90 in the concert hall.
Black suit and red cord around the neck – the distinctive sign for civil parties who do not wish to be bothered by the press – Eden Galindo, 52, is the first to take the stand. Assisted by a translator, he tells the special assize court about the atmosphere at the concert before the first shots. “We did the sound checks, everything was going well, it was ‘a great show’.” Then comes the famous song “Kiss The Devil”.
“After a few songs, I was on the side of the stage and started hearing the thump of gunshots. I thought the sound system was exploding.”
Eden Galindo, former EODM guitaristbefore the special assize court
Eden Galindo is alerted by Jesse Hughes, familiar with gunshots because “he comes from a community living in the California desert” as he will specify during his testimony, that it is indeed about shootings. The guitarist sees “flares in the crowd” and the bewildered faces of the spectators in the front row: “IThere were so many people they couldn’t move.” Panic takes over the scene. “We all ran sideways, he continues. We thought it was going to stop but it continued, they all started shooting at the same time and then they reloaded. The technician told us: ‘The next time it stops, we run’.”
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With Jesse Hughes, he goes upstairs to retrieve the latter’s girlfriend. In the confusion, they take time to locate her, before finding her in a lodge. The shootings continue. They end up leaving the room “through a side door”. “We ran down the street, we didn’t know where to go, we didn’t know if they were after us, we were very scareddescribes, with a rapid flow, Eden Galindo, a sheet of paper under her eyes. And there a young man who has become a good friend, Arthur [Dénouveaux, président de l’association Life for Paris], called a taxi and made us get in, telling us to go to the police station.”
At the police station, they are surrounded by other victims, “wounded” and covered with “blood”. After a long wait, the news of the death of the the group’s merchandiser, Nick Alexander, falls. “We came home, I felt broken, it was very difficult to go back to a normal life”, testifies Eden Galindo. After “a therapy” and a return to Europe to finish the tour, the musician left the band. “Today my life is different, I have beautiful daughters and wife, but I will never be the same again, he concludes. I want to tell the families of the victims that I think of them every day and that I pray for them.”
Jesse Hughes, black suit and red tie, hair tied in a ponytail and long mustache, takes over at the helm. After thanking “the president of France, the mayor of Paris, the court, the judge, the association Life for Paris and especially the French people, always benevolent towards me and my group”he confides his apprehension to come and testify here about “events of November 13”who “changed my life forever”.
The singer’s provocations after the attacks seem far away. His tone and his words are measured, the emotion is contained. “As that day approached, I began to feel that familiar nervousness (…) that I have carried with me since the attacks, he explains. I started to feel things that I had buried, feelings that I thought I had overcome.”
Like Eden Galindo before him, he remembers his joy at coming to play in Paris that evening, he who maintains with the French “a love affair” (a “love story”) well known. The room is full, “all tickets had been sold”. We know what happened next: the shots, the scene leaving hastily, the frantic search for his “fiancee” because “I knew death was nearthe exit with a bang from the room and this “angel” who puts them in a taxi. And then the worry and the expectation of knowing what happened to the members of the group, but also to the public: “I already knew that we had lost friends because from my point of view, everyone who was there that night was friends.”
“What they tried to do that night was to silence the joy associated with the music. They failed.”
Jesse Hughes, lead singer of the Eagles of Death Metalbefore the special assize court of Paris
Jesse Hughes narrates the reconstruction. “I didn’t know if I would have the strength to come back on stage, because I thought I was like the cheese that had to attract mice to trap mice”he metaphorizes. “After the attacks, I asked myself a lot of questions, I was a bit lost. I relied on friends, especially in France, to keep moving forward.” The singer of the group, currently on tour in Europe, wants to be optimistic: “This tragedy was able to be transformed into a beacon of light and that is why I have forgiven those poor souls who committed these acts.” In conclusion, Jesse Hughes quotes British heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne: “You can’t kill rock’n roll.” (“You Can’t Kill Rock ‘n Roll”).