AVENGED SEVENFOLD Guitarist Interviewed By WGRD 97.9 FM At ROCK ON THE RANGE (Video)

May 24, 2011

Dave Kim of the Grand Rapids, Michigan radio station WGRD 97.9 FM conducted an interview with guitarist Synyster Gates of Orange County, California's AVENGED SEVENFOLD at this past weekend's Rock On The Range festival in Columbus, Ohio. You can now watch the chat below.

Six months after AVENGED SEVENFOLD parted ways with drummer Mike Portnoy, who recorded and toured with the band in 2010 following the death of AVENGED drummer Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, the exact reasons for their sudden parting are still somewhat vague. In a recent interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com, AVENGED singer M. Shadows said that the band is "still on good terms" with Portnoy, but added, "It just got a little out of hand for a while there with us. And the way he runs his camp is a little different than we run ours. It couldn't co-exist in that way and I'm really happy for him I'm happy on a bunch of different levels . . . Mike helped us out in a time of need and he really stuck true to what Jimmy's parts were, which we were really thankful for that."

Synyster Gates kept to the official story when he told The Pulse Of Radio that Portnoy and AVENGED were always supposed to say goodbye at the end of last year. "Mike Portnoy is larger than life," he said. "I mean, he's a huge deal. I mean, he was Jimmy's favorite drummer, but I don't think either of us really had aspirations of carrying on past this, 'cause we both have our own things that we're kind of doing."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD asked Portnoy to play on last year's "Nightmare" record following Sullivan's passing from an overdose of drugs in December 2009.

Portnoy himself, who left his band DREAM THEATER after 20 years last summer, broke the news about his exit from AVENGED in December 2010, hinting that it was not his choice.

The new AVENGED drummer is Arin Ilejay, who has also recorded a new song with the band called "Not Ready To Die". Shadows said about recording the track with Ilejay, "That was a great experience for us to be able to do that just so we don't go into the next record completely blind (about) how he is in the studio."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD recently premiered the music video for its latest single, "So Far Away", described as a "raw and emotional" tribute to Sullivan.

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