Eagles of Death Metal’s Jesse Hughes: ‘I’m Not Gonna Let the Bad Guys Win’

It's official. Eagles of Death Metal are back onstage in Europe and that in itself is a triumph. Though they did return to Paris and play a few songs during U2's set late last year, Eagles of Death Metal are back to performing their own shows in Europe, determined not to let their fans down or let the terrorist attack that occurred at their show at Le Bataclan deter them.

While Eagles of Death Metal are back, the events of that night still affect frontman Jesse Hughes, who gave an emotional interview to a Swedish NBC affiliate TV4 prior to the band's show in the country. During the chat, Hughes reveals that he knew what was happening immediately after hearing the first shots go off. Panicked, he started searching for his girlfriend Tuesday who was at the show.

"I didn't see my girl, Tuesday. She's, you know, the love of my life and ... I went back up into the backstage area to look for her and she wasn't there, and then I opened up a hallway and when I went inside the hallway there was a dude at the end of it holding a gun," said Hughes, who added, "I thought I was dead, I just waited for the shots to hit me." But the gunman missed just as he fled the area. Eventually, he was reunited with his girlfriend. "There's never been the sweeter-sounding voice that you can imagine," said Hughes about hearing her call his name. Welling up, Hughes spoke about the vision of seeing audience members being killed, stating that they died "with great courage."

The vocalist says that the terror attacks have stuck with him, stating, "I'm trying to really get as far from that feeling as I can possibly get so that I don't see things when I wake up in the morning anymore." He added, "You have to stay light. You have to keep your heart light. I'm not gonna let the bad guys win."

Eagles of Death Metal's European tour returns to Paris this week, with the band scheduled to play Olympia Hall on Feb. 16. In the time since the attack, Eagles of Death Metal have encouraged artists to cover their song "I Love You All the Time" with all publishing proceeds donated to The Sweet Stuff Foundation's directive of funding families affected by the attack. The "Play It Forward" campaign has already yielded covers from artists in a variety of genres.