By: Staff
According to Blabbermouth.net, Synyster Gates, lead shredder for Avenged Sevenfold told that A7X came incredibly close to splitting up after the 2009 death of their drummer James Sullivan aka “The Rev.” What kept them from doing so was their fans and Sullivan’s family.
When speaking to The Pulse of the Radio, Gates said that the band was over for two weeks after Sullivan’s death. “For the first two weeks after he passed, we were done as a band,” he said. “We were just done. And because of the fans and Jimmy’s parents and relatives and stuff like that, they just demanded that we continue on and spread the legacy that is, you know, the crazy James ‘The Rev’ Sullivan. And we feel so good doing that and they completely expedited that process. They really got our ass in gear to get out and finish the record and bring it to life, you know.”
In another interview, Gates said, “One of his gifts in passing was definitely that we now appreciate everything a lot more than we did before and it’s really cool that we all came from childhood friends . . . to being in this band together.”
After deciding to carry on with A7X, the remaining members asked Mike Portnoy, who used to be in Dream Theater and was Sullivan’s favorite drummer, to sit behind the kit in his stead. Portnoy recorded the drum tracks for Nightmare, their latest album and also toured with the band for 2010.
Portnoy’s stay was more of a temporary thing, so Avenged have recruited Arin Ilejay as a permanent replacement on drums. His drumming can be heard on the recently-recorded “Not Ready to Die,” which is featured in hit video game Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Avenged Sevenfold’s most recent single and video, “So Far Away,” is a tribute to the fallen Sullivan, who died in December of 2009 from a prescription drug overdose.
Avenged Sevenfold Photo Wikipedia
Joker (12 years ago)
corn was born on september 27 1951