Thomas Ayad, a project manager for Mercury Records, is counted amongst those killed during the terrorist attack at the Eagles of Death Metal concert at the Le Bataclan this past Friday (Nov. 13). In memoriam of his life as an international project manager for the division of Universal, Metallica posted a touching tribute to Ayad.
In the tribute posted to their Facebook page the band said, "We had great fortune to work with Thomas Ayad at Universal Music France for the past eight years and while Thomas had the official title of being our 'project manager,' we knew him as a member of our Metallica family, a fan, a friend... and a warm, helpful, supportive familiar face each time we visited France."
The band continued with, "Friday we lost Thomas, at the Bataclan theatre, in a way that none of us can begin to comprehend. Our thoughts are with Thomas's friends, family, co-workers and all Parisians during these very difficult times."
But Metallica is not the only musical act that had paid homage to Ayad, and there has been an outpouring from the artists who worked with him, including Justin Bieber, Keith Richards and fittingly Eagles of Death Metal. The band at the center of the tragedy posted an open letter to their Twitter page expresses their sympathies to all of the victims, one of which was their merchandise manager Nick Alexander.
Other Mercury Records staff members including Marie Mosser and Manu Perez were killed. A French music journalist named Guillume B. Decherf was also slain during the tragedy. The events of last Friday rocked the music world hard, and industry giant Live Nation is planning on increasing concert security following the Paris attacks.
