Bataclan director and Eagles of Death Metal clash over frontman’s Paris visit one year after attack

On this weekend in 2015, the Bataclan music venue in Paris was one of the sites of a large-scale terrorist attack. The band playing during the tragedy, Eagles of Death Metal, became a symbol of courage when it lost a crew member and then returned to lay flowers at the site the following month.

But there is little love lost between the Palm Desert group and the French venue.

According to reports, the band’s frontman, Jesse Hughes, was denied entry to a Sting concert that marked the reopening of the Bataclan on Saturday night.

“They came, I threw them out -- there are things you can’t forgive,” the venue’s co-director, Jules Frutos, told the AFP.

But the band’s representatives refute that account, saying that Hughes — who’s in France for an official government commemoration of the Paris attacks Sunday — simply passed by the venue to help personally process the tragedy and didn’t seek to gain access to it.

Hughes and two other band members, Dave Catching and Eden Galindo, traveled with some security, got out of a car in the streets outside, spent a few minutes interacting with fans and moved on, according to the reps.

“This tragedy has been very hard for Jesse to go through, as you might imagine,” said a member of the band’s management team who asked not to be identified because he said he wanted to keep the focus on the tragedy rather than stoking a personal conflict. “Jesse saw the whole attack unfold in front of him and the band lost a member of their crew. He just went by the venue for himself. He never wanted or tried to go inside.”

The rep said Hughes never asked for tickets ahead of time either, though it’s possible that the band’s label, Universal Music Group, may have put in a request earlier. The person added that despite Hughes commenting in the past that he’d like to help reopen the venue, he and other band members harbored no grudge they were not asked to return.

The coordinated attacks on Nov. 13 of last year around Paris and its suburbs claimed the lives of 130 people, including 89 at the Bataclan. Among them was Nick Alexander, a British member of the Eagles of Death Metal crew who was manning the merchandise stand.

The disagreement over Saturday’s event continues a history of conflict between Hughes and the venue.

Though Hughes thanked the French authorities, a rift soon opened with the Bataclan. The singer told Fox Business Channel he thought Muslim security personnel at the venue cooperated with the attack, a statement he later apologized for and retracted. He also said he saw Muslims celebrating in the street after the attacks, a comment that inflamed passions in France.

Frutos said in an interview in September that Hughes was “dar[ing] to make incredibly false declarations every two months.”

Sting helped reopen the venue Saturday with a moment of silence and comments in French that he wanted “to remember and honor those who lost their lives in the attacks a year ago and to celebrate the life and the music of this historic venue.”

Hughes will appear at A Peaceful Noise, a musical tribute to Alexander, in London next week. He may perform, though not as part of the larger Eagles of Death Metal band.

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