AVENGED SEVENFOLD Guitarist Says Late Drummer THE REV 'Wasn't Meant To Grow Old'

July 7, 2010

AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Zacky Vengeance recently spoke to RollingStone.com about "Nightmare", the Orange County, California band's first studio album since the passing of its drummer, Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the "Nightmare" recording process:

"It's the darkest, the coldest, most numb album I've ever heard, because we went there during the hardest time, basically with tears in our eyes, and recorded the songs our friend had helped write. Having to listen to the demos he played on, we put up a shield. We turned the rest of the world off, marched in there, and went to work. Looking back, I don't even know how we did it."

On whether he or any of his bandmates could have done anything to prevent Sullivan's sudden passing:

"Jimmy was just a magical person. He was always the most eccentric, most exciting friend that we ever had. He was the kid in high school that all the other kids dressed up as for Halloween. He really only truly lived for his friends, his family, and all of our fans. As far as warning signs or anything like that, you can never see something like that coming. That guy wasn't meant to grow old. He didn't want responsibility. I don't think it could have been any other way, to be honest."

On DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy's contributions to "Nightmare":

"Mike absolutely delivered on this record. We sat there and made sure everything was true to the demos Jimmy played and it came out amazing. I listen to it, and I never for a second don't feel like it's not Jimmy on the drums. No one can replace Jimmy, but Mike did what Jimmy would have done on this record, I believe."

On whether AVENGED SEVENFOLD will find a full-time replacement for The Rev for the band's next album:

"We're just taking baby steps at this point. After Jimmy passed, I learned you have to live in the moment and every day is the only thing that you have. There may be a day where we come across someone we click with, or we could go onstage and it could be too hard to deal with. You just don't know until you're there."

Read the entire interview at RollingStone.com.

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