Eagles Of Death Metal Releases Statement About Paris Attack

The show at Le Bataclan concert hall was one of several locations in Paris targeted in a coordinated terrorist attack Friday evening, along with the Stade de France soccer stadium and restaurants in the 10th and 11th arrondissements.

The total death toll is 129 as of Wednesday, including 89 victims killed at the concert. France’s justice minister announced today that 368 people are wounded, with 195 hospitalized, 41 in intensive care and three in critical condition, according to the Associated Press.  

All members of the Eagles of Death Metal escaped the attack. One of the victims who died was the band’s merchandise manager, Nick Alexander. Thomas Ayad, international product manager for Mercury Records, as well as Universal Music Group employees Marie Mosser and Manu Perez were also killed.

Here’s Eagles Of Death Metal’s statement in full, which was posted on Facebook:

While the band is now home safe, we are horrified and still trying to come to terms with what happened in France. Our thoughts and hearts are first and foremost with our brother Nick Alexander, our record company comrades Thomas Ayad, Marie Mosser, and Manu Perez, and all the friends and fans whose lives were taken in Paris, as well as their friends, families, and loved ones.

Although bonded in grief with the victims, the fans, the families, the citizens of Paris, and all those affected by terrorism, we are proud to stand together, with our new family, now united by a common goal of love and compassion.

We would like to thank the French police, the FBI, the U.S. and French State Departments, and especially all those at ground zero with us who helped each other as best they could during this unimaginable ordeal, proving once again that love overshadows evil.

All EODM shows are on hold until further notice.

Vive la musique, vive la liberté, vive la France, and vive EODM.

The Sweet Stuff Foundation – a nonprofit founded by EODM’s Josh Homme – announced Tuesday that it was dedicating all donations received through its website from now until Dec. 31 to the musicians and crew members’ surviving families of the tragedy in Paris. The organization was formed to provide “assistance to career musicians, recording engineers and their families struggling with illness and disability.”

Homme, who is also the frontman for Queens of the Stone Age, was not in Paris at the time of the attack, according to the musician’s hometown newspaper, The Desert Sun.

Rolling Stone points out that White Miles, who opened for EODM in Paris, also released a statement about the attack Wednesday. The Australian duo has canceled shows in Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, but will play its Dec. 17 gig in Innsbruck, Austria, “in remembrance of our lost friend Nick Alexander.”