Jesse Hughes, the lead singer of the American rock group Eagles of Death Metal, testified on Tuesday at the trial in Paris about the attack in the Bataclan. “I have forgiven the poor souls on trial here,” he said.
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Two band members of the American rock group Eagles of Death Metal – Jesse Hughes and ex-guitarist Eden Galindo – testified at the trial about the November 13 attacks in Paris. It was during the Eagles of Death Metal concert that heavily armed terrorists broke into the Bataclan concert hall on November 13, 2015 and opened fire.
Hughes and Galindo were both dressed in black suits, according to the French news site LCI and often could not hold back their tears. Galindo said he mainly remembered the confusion that followed after the shots. “I didn’t know what was going on. I thought the sound system might have exploded.’
Panic
Galindo still remembers the panicked faces of the fans in the front row, who still didn’t know what was going on in the back of the room. “I thought it would stop, but it didn’t stop. We all lay on top of each other on stage.’ The band itself was eventually able to flee through the wings. Galindo and Hughes rushed to find Hughes’ girlfriend who was still in the artist’s box. Then they ran away from the Bataclan. “We ran, but we didn’t know where we were,” Galindo testified.
They eventually jumped into a taxi that took them to the police station, he said. There they found other concertgoers, smeared with blood, who had also come for help. “I’ll never be the same,” said Galindo, head bowed. He turned to the victims and said, “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of you.”
Jesse Hughes said that during the concert he immediately realized that there was shooting. “I grew up in the desert in California. I recognize gunshots.” Hughes lost a personal friend that night, Nick Alexander, who sold the group’s t-shirts. ‘But in my experience all the people who were present at the concert are my friends. I lost 90 friends that night,” Hughes said.
Fans
Hughes did not dare to perform for a long time. “I felt like the cheese that would attract the mice. I was afraid it would happen again. †
After his testimony, according to French media, a deeply moved Jesse Hughes embraced several of his fans. Many of them showed up for his testimony at the assize trial. ‘The perpetrators wanted the music, or the joy of living, silencing,” says the group’s frontman. “But they failed.” In his own words, Hughes was able to forgive the terrorists for the horror. ‘I am a christian. I pray for them and for their souls,” the singer said. Hughes ended his testimony with a quote from rock legend Ozzy Osbourne: You can’t kill rock-‘n-roll.
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