As Eagles of Death Metal were performing to a sold-out crowd of around 1,500 people at the Bataclan theater in Paris on November 13, 2015, a group of Islamist terrorists attacked, killing about 90 fans in the audience.
Shaken by the incident, the band members couldn’t return to the stage until a joint concert with U2 at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris next month. Jesse Hughes shared his gratitude for Bono and Josh Homme’s help to bring them back in a recent chat with Eonmusic.
“So, what I owe U2 is something I could never possibly repay to them,” the singer said. “I couldn’t possibly repay them, and that’s what makes them the real saints of rock and roll. Everyone else may be full of sh*t, but Bono, The Edge, Larry [Mullen Jr.] and Adam [Clayton] are the tops, and they saved our band’s life.”
Delving into the show’s behind-the-scenes, he continued, “Well, I was tricked. Remember, to be honest with you, I wasn’t intending to play, and Joshua and Bono concocted this plan, which also means a lot to me. Like to them, their attitude was like, ‘You can’t stop,’ but I thought we were just going to be introduced on the stage and walked out.”
“And right before that night’s performance is when they laid it on me what they wanted. And I was pissed. I was actually going to get into a cab and leave, and it wasn’t that I was afraid to go on stage again, but at that moment, I never wanted to be cheese in a trap against my friends ever again. For all intents and purposes, I had retired, but Bono actually came backstage and went, ‘I thought all Americans were supposed to be like John Wayne? I guess you’re just a p*ssy like everyone else,’ and when he walked away, I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, you know what? F*ck you!’ And he saved my life.”
That evening, Eagles of Death Metal and U2 performed ‘People Have the Power’ by Patti Smith, followed by Eagles of Death Metal’s own ‘I Love You All the Time.’
After the show, Hughes thanked U2 in a statement, announcing that Eagles of Death Metal would return to Paris in February 2016. The next day, the band visited the Bataclan to pay their respects to the victims of the attack.