Eagles Of Death Metal Have Launched A Covers Campaign To Benefit Paris

To have to mentally deal with all the trauma that witnessing an act of such unfathomable horrific cruelty as the terrorist attack on the Bataclan in Paris would surely bring on must be an unthinkably difficult process to wade through.

As anyone who saw the harrowing VICE interview with the Eagles of Death Metal will know, the grief and anguish the band themselves are suffering through at the moment is extremely real and heartbreaking.
But in spite of the horrendous tragedy, the band has formed an indelible bond with the city of Paris, and the swathes of people affected by the attacks on the city that night.
The band has sent a letter to as many of its creative, musical, and otherwise famous pals as they could, urging them to help them “play it forward” for Paris by recording a cover of EODM’s track “I Love You All Time Time.” The band has pledged 100% of all the publishing income they earn from sales of the song will go to The Sweet Stuff Foundation, who are collecting donations on behalf of Parisians until at least the end of the year.
An open letter, penned by band co-founders Jesse Hughes and Joshua Homme, reads as follows:

“Hello talented friend,


The senseless and violent terrorist attacks of Nov. 13, 2015 in Paris have left us all unsettled and we dare not give another second of precious time to those who have tried to steal our freedoms and take away our power.

Instead, we are writing to ask for your help to Play It Forward. We are calling upon our friends to donate their time, talent and good will in a show of solidarity to help the victims of these atrocious acts in Paris and those affected by terrorism worldwide.

We are asking for you to cover our song “I Love You All The Time.” For every cover sold, we pledge to donate 100% of the publishing income to The Sweet Stuff Foundation. We ask that you also donate the money generated from sales of the song to the charity.

In the same spirit, we would encourage you to offer one of your songs up to be covered by another artist, and follow suit – donate the publishing monies to charity – The Play it Forward Initiative.

Whether you’re Soul or R&B; Hip Hop or Hippy; Garage, Goth, Country, Punk or Pop; Death Metal or DJ; It matters not. Whether your version is faithful to ours, instrumental, uses only lyrics or fragments thereof or is completely reimagined in every way, it matters not. Your individual musical differences become our collective strength. Simultaneously, we will call upon iTunes, Tidal, Amazon, Spotify & all others who will sell these covers, to join us and donate their portions to a charity as a symbol of unity. So many wonderfully talented artists have offered their love & support or have reached out asking, “How can we help?” Our answer is simple; Unite with us. All of us. The musicians, the bands, the music companies & the fans… because we are music. We are the anthems of great nations. We are the songs of our forefathers. We are the hymns of God. The songs of the broken hearted. The unchained melodies. The songs of puppy love & of love that cannot be broken. We are the music of hope & possibility. We are the call to arms. We are the chorus of victory. We are songs in the key of life.

We are the Champions… of the World.

In the event our song doesn’t float your boat, we encourage you to help unite our business by any means possible. If you’re drawing a blank, donate something of yours or the proceeds from one of your songs, as Duran Duran has so graciously done. But do join us help & heal through music. They attacked us all, please hear the call.

Thank you for your time & love to you all,

Eagles of Death Metal”

So far both My Morning Jacket and The Dean Ween Group have rushed together covers of the track, but expect more to come in the following days.

Bands have been urged to donate all sales, ad revenue, or streaming income earned from whatever platform they choose to post their cover versions to the foundation.
You can read more about The Sweet Stuff’s Paris push via their website.
Photo: Kevin Winter via Getty Images.


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