Paris attacks rock band leader: Everybody should be armed

PARIS - Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes has returned to Paris, saying he feels a "sacred" responsibility to finish the band's show that was interrupted by gunfire, but adds that the terror attacks haven't changed his view on guns.

Islamic extremists massacred 89 people at the band's Nov. 13 performance at the Bataclan, which has been closed since the attacks across Paris that left 130 dead and 350 others wounded.

The American rock group is preparing prepared for a tribute concert in another Paris venue Tuesday. Some Bataclan survivors will attend.

"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.

"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.

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."

On that fateful Friday night, the band members dispersed to escape the carnage, one running upstairs, others slipping out a side door. They all ended up at the police station.

Drummer Julien Dorio said in an emotional interview with Vice and HBO that he "bailed off my stool" with the initial shots.

"I saw two guys out front, and that might be the most awful thing ever, is them relentlessly shooting into the audience," he said.

The band has already made a surprise return to Paris and performed with U2 in December, their first onstage appearance since the attacks.