James Owen Sullivan, You Will Be Missed

Kind of cliché, but I became a fan of Avenged Sevenfold when the Bat Country video came out on MTV in 2005 when I was a freshman in high school. I immediately fell in love with it and begged and pleaded my parents to let me get the CD. They finally relented and got it for me for Christmas. As soon as it was acceptable, I left my family and went straight to my room where I listened to the entire CD on repeat for at least 10 times before my mom came in and yelled at me. The very next day, I googled A7X and found out they had 2 other earlier releases. I saved all of my lunch money for about a month and a half just so I could buy both CD’s. They were the first person/band I added onto my myspace, and I looked at all of the pictures and saw Jimmy and fell into like. Ever since then I have supported Avenged Sevenfold and actually gone out and bought all of their things (I.E. - CD’s, DVD’s, shirts, concert tickets, etc). I actually took up drumming just because that’s what The Rev played. In my opinion, he was the BEST damn drummer in the entire fucking world!!! When I found out that he died on the 28th, I bawled my eyes out and my family couldn’t understand why I was so attached to someone I had never met in my entire life. I tried to explain, but they all just looked at me as if I were crazy and continued to watch the stupid football game. To me, The Rev was just this comical genius of a drummer that was amazingly gorgeous. He just had a slight tendency to over-indulge in his vices a little bit too much. I liked him with all of my heart and am devastated by his death. I can’t even imagine what his friends, family, and wife are going through at this time. He was just a year over being in that big club in heaven that boasts the greats such as Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin. He’s so awesome, that I bet they’ll let him in (even though he was closer to 29). I firmly believe that he is someplace watching over his family and friends. Hopefully, one day if I’m lucky, I’ll get to meet him wherever he is and tell him just how much I like and respect him. As for all the people that are saying they’re glad he died, here’s a big FUCK YOU! Nobody deserves to die young.

Love with all my heart,
Erika Bazemore (erika_xtc)

PS - Sorry this letter is so scattered, it’s 3:30am right now and I’m really tired.