Respecting the Rev

Stumbled across a page who is asking for 5,000 likes to their page so that they can go ask permission to make a movie about The Rev from The Rev’s parents and Avenged Sevenfold.

On their info it states that they are hoping to be able to make the movie, and then put it on the internet so fans can download/buy it. Personally, I have a problem with not only bugging those closest to him but the fact that if they are selling the movie once it is made they will be making money off of his death.

Not only did the families of Avenged Sevenfold and Jimmy’s family lose a person that they loved and cared about but they had to go through the loss in a very public manner. While the Avenged Sevenfold family of fans also feels this loss, our feelings are nothing compared to what those closest to him have gone through.

Yes, I am a fan and yes I did cry when I found out, and I bawled through So Far Away and the entire Nightmare album. I just don’t think that just because we are fans that we have any right to intrude on someone’s personal life in that manner. Yes, the lives of Avenged Sevenfold and those closest to them are put on public display, but that doesn’t give anyone the right dig deeper into their lives than what we have been given.

I feel that sometimes our society forgets that our favorite celebrities, musicians, actors etc. are just as human as we are and while their work and their lives touch so many people, their personal lives and their feelings are just as private as yours. Who they are as artists is the only facet of their life that any fan TRULY knows. We might know personal tidbits about them, or by some great stroke of luck get to meet them someday but in the end the fans know nothing of what it is like to be them day in and day out.

To me there is a difference in who The Rev is and who James “Jimmy” Owen Sullivan is. I think the only thing that us as fans are entitled to is knowing and loving who The Rev is, because that is who was on stage, who was creating the music, shooting the music videos. James “Jimmy” Owen Sullivan is who his family, friends, and brothers in Avenged Sevenfold know and love and I think that fans need to respect that.

If, heaven forbid, I lost a brother. I wouldn’t want anyone coming up to me after his death and try to poke and prod into his life. Not only are they asking for personal memories, but they are asking me to relive his passing and all of the memories and emotions attached to that.

I hope Jimmy is up there rocking out with the best of them, and I hope that the fans let him rest in peace, and carry on his memory in ways that don’t intrude on the lives of those closest to him.