Eagles Of Death Metal Stars Pens Letter To Concert Bombing Survivors

The Whigs' Julian Dorio, who was the drummer for Eagles of Death Metal at their Bataclan concert in Paris which was the target of a terrorist attack, has penned a letter to the survivors of the Manchester Arena bombing at an Ariana Grande concert.

89 people were killed in the November 13, 2015 attack during the EODM concert at the Paris concert hall. In the wake of the terror bombing at Grande's concert in the UK last month, Dorio issued the following message via Billboard: "Dear Manchester, I am heartbroken for you. As I watched the news of that terrible night from my home in Nashville, Tenn., 4,000 miles away, my central nervous system responded like a chemical reaction. I thought, 'Not again.' Yet since that awful moment, I'm awed by the testimonies of your courage and intrepid spirit. Reflecting on my own experience in Paris, I know that no words can do justice to what you have endured, or the journey you now traverse to healing and wholeness. I can only offer what has been true for me.

"I'm not going to tell you to look on the bright side, to be grateful, that it could be worse. The loss is devastating. The heart trembles like it could actually break, and that's OK. Feel it all. I have learned to be patient with myself and to acknowledge every feeling, sensation and thought as it ebbs and flows. Sometimes I'm flooded with memories -- the wave of sound, the gunpowder hitting my nose, the helplessness -- but as I worked to resolve the trauma, they've receded. The events have become integrated into my 'story.' My biography is no longer my biology. I increasingly live in the present, free from the tyranny of that horrific day.

"This wasn't true in the days and months following the shootings. Initially, it was as if the needle on a record was fixed in a groove so that the same music played over and over. I couldn't move forward. I was stuck while the world moved on around me. I spoke to others but felt different and unable to experience life's simplest pleasures. When I should have been exhilarated to spend time with my family, I replayed details of that night. Everything else seemed trivial. Some days I felt crazy and permanently damaged, as if this event would forever define my life.

"Slowly, that has begun to change. Feeling thrown into this terrifying new world, I relied on my unwavering wife, friends and therapist. Each day I felt a little more of my old self. Paris is something that happened to me, but it is not me. This acknowledgement has been liberating, and helped me understand what others go through as they heal." Read the rest of the letter here.

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