THREE members of the eight-strong New Orleans-based Hot 8 Brass Band have died in gun-related incidents since the popular performers started in 1995. On the eve of the band’s visit to Durham’s tenth Brass Festival, I asked co-founder Bennie “Big Peter” Pete for a view regarding the on-going horror of 49 club-goers being shot to death in Orlando. Florida.

“Well, we don’t live in Orland but it affected us. There has been a lot of news coverage, but the bottom-line seems to be that this guy was committed to ISIS or something, but all we can do is pray about something like that because a person has walked into a club and unloaded on 100 people.

“We had our own experience of that a few years ago in New Orleans when about 38 people were shot and two of them died. We’ve been through the same thing and it’s a crisis that you never really get over, but you try to keep your faith,” he says.

Trumpet player Jacob Johnson, 17, was found shot dead in 1996; trombone player Joseph “Shotgun Joe” Williams, 22, was shot dead by police in 2004 and drummer Dinerral “Dick” Shavers,25, was shot and killed while driving his car in 2006.

“To me, gun-carrying has got out of control. At one time a policeman would have a gun, a revolver, but not an automatic or semi-automatic weapon. It has just gone too far with that. The only people who have these other guns should be the military. No one needs to carry guns of that calibre,” he says.

So does the sousaphone player and band leader carry a gun? “No. I have a gun to protect my home and I used to carry it, but I don’t see the need to have it any more. I know that I’m a humble person that has faith in God, but I felt the difference that carrying a gun brings. I can tell you that I’m aware of my surroundings in New Orleans and there are places that are dos and donts. Places you shouldn’t be and felt uncomfortable in going to. When you went to these places you were more aware that things could happen. When I was carrying my gun, my mindset changed and my feeling was, ‘I should be allowed to go to these places because I’m a man and I should be allowed to go where I want’. My intention was not to harm anyone, but if someone tried to harm me then I felt I should be allowed to protect myself. And that was all because my mind had changed because I was carrying a gun.

“When you have peer pressure and you have a gun and just want to shoot it, then a lot of things come with it. I really feel a lot of evil spirits come with that gun because there’s something about that gun that makes you want to shoot it. You want to hear how loud it is and you want to check on your aim and it makes you more vulnerable to using it. So, I felt it was better to leave it at home to protect my house and decided not to carry it,” says Bennie.

He confesses he’s never fired his gun apart from when he visits a firing range to maintain his ability to use it properly.

“I thank God I’ve never shot at anyone,” Bennie says. “There are people who will pull a gun on you, but there has more to do with things like drugs when they think they must protect themselves by any means. Destruction takes place because people like this turn up at the same time at the same place."

It’s 8.30am when we talk and Bennie is busy having breakfast with his three-year-old son at school. He says that the Hot 8 line-up – which has lost a total of five members to early graves – constantly changes because not everyone can tour when they have families.

“I have an arrangement with my wife that works and I’m at my son’s school right now because it’s a Father’s Day Breakfast with the Kids event. I’m doing all my parenting now so that I can get away for a stretch. My son has reached the age where he says, ‘Don’t go to work, stay home’. It’s a heartbreaker,” Bennie explains.

Hot 8 have survived the impact of Hurricane Katrina, which led to the band featuring in Spike Lee’s 2006 documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and the follow-up The Creek Don’t Rise. In 2007, the band signed to the UK’s Try Thoughts label and studio albums followed, including the 2013 The Life and Times Of... which earned a Grammy nomination.

What does the band leader aim for after celebrating the 20th anniversary of Hot 8, which saw them sell-out a string of UK gigs in May and June?

“We want to complete the mission and win that Grammy and maybe try to keep adding on to those documentaries and look at the guys that were with us in the beginning,” he says.

Covers of Sexual Healing, Papa Was A Rolling Stone and Just My Imagination are likely to keep the Durham audience entertained and Bennie enjoys the fact that Hot 8 often improvises the set-list if certain numbers are proving popular.

Back in New Orleans bookings can be a jazz festival or a funeral . “We don’t get so many funeral bookings these days because we’re away touring so much. The family who book us choose the numbers and have to get the permit for us to perform in the street. We just arrive and play,” says Bennie.

And there is more movie glory ahead for Hot 8. “Tom Cruise was filming another Jack Reacher (Never Go Back) movie and we were asked to play for the film crew because they were wrapping things up. When he heard us he said, ‘We’ve got to get these guys in the shoot’, and that night we did a piece to camera. So we are in the film by accident,” jokes Bennie.

*Hot 8, Durham Gala Theatre, Friday, July 15. Box Office: 03000-266600 or galadurham.co.uk

* Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is due out on October 21