A Look Inside the Rev's Life, Before the Afterlife.

James Owen Sullivan (also known as "The Reverend Tholomew Plague", or just as "The Rev") was born on February 9th, 1981. He died on December 28th, 2009, at age twenty-eight. He was the drummer for heavy metal band, Avenged Sevenfold.

The Rev was one of the founding members of Avenged Sevenfold, along with Matthew Sanders, Justin Meacham, Zacky Baker, and Matt Wendt in 1999. In 2002, Brian Haner Jr. and Johnny Seward replaced Meacham and Wendt.

Jimmy was influenced by drummers such as Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Vinnie Paul (Pantera), Dave Lombardo (Slayer), Lars Ulrich (Metallica) and Terry Bozzio. His signature ability, which he called “‘the double-ride thing,’ just for lack of a better definition, because no one does it,” is a technique that can be heard on the song Almost Easy. When he does it, he doubles up at a fast tempo between the double bass and ride cymbals.

Growing up, Jimmy was a bit of a troublemaker. He got kicked out of Catholic school (which he attended with Matt Sanders) in the second grade. As a teenager, he also lived in a laundromat. He worked there during the day, and slept there during the night. "Yeah, I would just go and open it up, bring my pillow and blanket, and sleep until it was time to lock up. It was cool. I would bring my fucking TV/VCR and just chill." He has also been arrested seven times for things such as bar fights and hitting birds with stones while being high.

Jimmy is also a multi-talented musical artist, playing drums, double bass, piano, guitar and vocals. He was involved with other bands before the formation of Sevenfold, and he also had a side project band with Brian Haner Jr. (Synyster Gates) called Pinkly Smooth.

Not only can Jimmy play many different instruments, he also wrote some of the songs of Avenged Sevenfold, single-handedly. Afterlife, Almost Easy, Brompton Cocktail, and A Little Piece of Heaven were written by him, on the fourth album, entitled Avenged Sevenfold. He also sang back up vocals to many of the tracks on this album.

Avenged Sevenfold has five albums released, and was working on the sixth album, when Jimmy unexpectedly died. According to L.A. Now, he died due to an accidental overdose of oxycodone, oxymorphone, diazepam/nordiazepam and ethanol. The autopsy, recorded on December 29, 2009, states that he had an enlarged heart and liver.

The remaining members of the band posted the news of Jimmy on their Myspace and Twitter on December 29th:

"It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we tell you of the passing today of Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan. Jimmy was not only one of the world's best drummers, but more importantly he was our best friend and brother. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jimmy's family and we hope that you will respect their privacy during this difficult time.

Jimmy you are forever in our hearts.
We love you.

M Shadows, Synyster Gates, Zacky Vengeance and Johnny Christ"

On their myspace blog entry alone, there were over ten thousand comments.

On January 4th, the Sullivan family posted their words for Jimmy, which can be read here. On January 15th, Matt Sanders wrote a very touching piece about Jimmy, including a link to a thirty minute tribute video for the Rev. I have read the blog and watched the video over four times, and I still choke up every time. You can find the blog and video here.

Though, I have never met Mr. Sullivan in person, I felt like I had when I heard he had died. I cried for about two hours, and I hadn't ever met him. Though he died about seven months ago, I still want to cry whenever I hear his name or read an article about him on Mibba or any other site. It's very shocking to me—a silly teenager who has never even met this man to feel so hurt and shattered by his death.

He was a great man with a fun, childish attitude and a great talent for music. His quote, "Just a spoonful of Jimmy helps the whole world go down!" is just an example of this.

It's quite sad that he had to die at such a young age. He had so much more to offer the world. But, alas, he is gone, but he will never be forgotten, because he has legions of fans that will always carry on his memory every time we listen to Avenged Sevenfold.

Sources

Drummerworld: Jimmy "The Reverend" Sullivan.
Myspace: Avenged Sevenfold's Blog.
L.A. Times Obituary of James "The Rev" Sullivan.
The Rev — Wikipedia.