PARIS – Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes has returned to Paris to finish the show that was interrupted when ISIS-linked gunmen opened fire killing 90 people last November. In a wide-ranging television interview Monday with ITele, he said “everybody has to have” guns.
Hughes, a member of the National Rifle Association, said his support for guns has not wavered after the terrorist attack.
“Did your French gun control stop a single f–king person from dying at the Bataclan? And if anyone can answer yes, I’d like to hear it, because I don’t think so. I think the only thing that stopped it was some of the bravest men that I’ve ever seen in my life charging head-first into the face of death with their firearms,” he said.
“I know people will disagree with me, but it just seems like God made men and women, and that night guns made them equal,” he said.
“And I hate it that it’s that way. I think the only way that my mind has been changed is that maybe that until nobody has guns everybody has to have them.”
The band’s performance marks the reopening of the Bataclan, which has been closed since the attacks across Paris that left 130 dead and 350 others wounded.
“There’s been just such an outpouring of support for us and love for us. It’s overwhelming. I just don’t want to let anyone down,” Hughes said of the band’s upcoming performance at the Olympia
Theatre in Paris on Tuesday.
He made the remarks during an emotional interview with iTELE’s Laurence Ferrari on Monday.
WATCH: Eagles of Death Metal frontman emotional in interview ahead of Paris show
“This show I’m supposed to put up like a barrier against anything that’s not fun and that we’re really just supposed to have fun there tomorrow. I think that’s what we really need to do is just have fun together so that we can put some of this (expletive) behind us and really leave it there so it doesn’t follow us around for the rest of our lives,” Hughes said while breaking down into tears.
WATCH: Paris attack survivors speak out ahead of Eagles of Death Metal concert
Hughes told iTELE that he’s been unable to control his emotions since the attacks.
“I haven’t had any nightmares and I’ve slept fine but when I’m awake is when I see things that are nightmares,” he said.
Asked if the trauma he and others experienced has changed his views on gun control, Hughes, co-founder of the band, said he believes everyone should be armed.
“I think the only way that my mind has been changed is that maybe until nobody has guns everybody has to have them. Because I don’t ever want to see anything like this ever happen again and I
want everyone to have the best chance to live and I saw people die that maybe could have lived,” he said.
“I wish I knew for sure if they could have had a better chance because there were some real angels, real wonderful people in that show that aren’t alive today and I really wish they were.”
Paris attack survivors open up ahead of tribute concert
Survivors of November’s deadly Paris attacks have opened up to a French terrorism commission ahead of a highly charged concert.
Speaking to the parliamentary commission Monday, Bataclan survivor Alexis Lebrun questioned why there was scant security around one of Paris’ biggest music venues, despite a high alert following attacks 10 months earlier on a satirical newspaper and kosher supermarket.
WATCH: Bataclan survivor returns to site of Paris attacks
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