Rest in Peace, Jimmy
Rest in peace, Jimmy.
I remember the first time I ever heard of Avenged Sevenfold. I was in Fargo, North Dakota, for an FFA convention. We had to wake up really early so we could get to the college on time to get to the competition on time, and so me and my friend decided we weren’t going to sleep. That didn’t work to well; we both crashed anyway. But I woke up at four thirty or so in the morning, and turned the TV onto VH1. The second the TV came on, my life changed.
Playing on the TV was Avenged Sevenfold’s video for “Bat Country.” It was amazing; the music, the imagery…everything. It changed my life that day. I woke my friend up, and she loved it just as much as I did. We’ve both been big Avenged Sevenfold fans ever since that day in 2006. I’ll never forget my first impression of The Rev: “He’s an amazing drummer. I’ve never seen anyone play drums like that!”
When we got back from the convention, my friend and I were still excited about the song we’d heard that music. On the scorecards they give you in FFA for crops judging, which both of us did, we had written what lyrics we could remember on the back of the sheets. We got in trouble with our teacher/supervisor, but we didn’t care. We loved the music, and we wanted to write the lyrics down. We walked into our hotel room, wanting to listen to the song again. We wanted to hear other music by the band. So instead of buying food that night to eat, we used what money we had left for food to buy the CD, “City of Evil.” It was the best CD ever one of us had ever heard. It was stunningly amazing.
We listened to it the entire way back to our hometown, which was six hours away. Then, when we got there, we made a copy of the CD, because we’d had to combine our money to get the CD in the first place. So we made a copy and I took the original home, because her parents would have freaked if they saw the CD cover.
When I got home, I didn’t even eat right away, and I had been really hungry. I went upstairs and put the CD in my CD player and pushed ‘play’, letting the music fill the house. My Dad wasn’t living with us, and my Mom wasn’t home. So it didn’t matter how loud I had my music. I went back downstairs, and with the music filling the air, I made some food before going to the computer and looking up more stuff by Avenged.
As the years have passed since then, my love for Avenged Sevenfold hasn’t left me. I’m still as in love with their music as I was then, if not more. I can’t go even a few hours without listening to an Avenged Sevenfold song, and I have posters that decorate my walls of them. The background on my computer is frequently Avenged Sevenfold, and I have a binder full of my stories that I decorated with pictures and lyrics of them.
On November 9th, 2008, I saw Avenged Sevenfold perform at the Fargodome; the very city I had first heard Avenged Sevenfold in. The only reason I knew that Avenged was going to be there was because we had been in Bismarck doing a shopping trip, and I heard a commercial for the concert over the radio. The very second I heard that Avenged was going to be in Fargo, I knew I had to go. I told my Mom right then and there, as we were walking into Best Buy, that I had to go. She halfheartedly said, “We’ll see. It’s a long way from home to drive, and it would be expensive.”
But I didn’t care. I had to see that concert. I saved as much money from my job as I could, and not a day went by that I didn’t badger my Mom about going. Finally, about four weeks before the concert, she gave in, and ordered my ticket online. I went with a friend of mine who was living with us at the time, and everything was arranged. My Dad would drive the six hour journey to get us there, and back. We would stay at my cousin’s house, and I would be responsible for my own food.
But Mom knew that I wouldn’t have enough money if I had to pay for the gas and the food as well, so she gave me three hundred out of her own pocket to fund the trip. I was ecstatic; she realized how much I loved Avenged, and how much I wanted to see them. We left for Fargo on November 7th, and we got there that night.
The concert was amazing. I remember I was captivated by Jimmy’s drumming, much as I had been when I saw him on TV that first time I saw “Bat Country.” He was a spectacular drummer; he put his whole heart and soul into the sticks he was hitting the drums with, and he loved the fans so much. I cried when they sang ‘Seize The Day,’ and I cried when they performed their last song, ‘Almost Easy,’
When I heard the news that Jimmy had died, my world stopped. My legs started shaking so badly that I couldn’t stand on my own; I had to grab onto the walls for support. It was right after the band had posted it on their site, I think, and I was devastated. I started crying, and I haven’t stopped yet. I can’t sleep at night; I have nightmares of seeing him die, or just dreams where he’s chasing the Stallion Ducks and I wake up crying from them.
Jimmy meant, and still does mean, so much to his fans, friends, and family. He was an amazing person inside and out, and the best damn drummer I’ve ever seen or heard. The world is a dimmer, darker place without him; music will never be the same without him, or his passion for music and the fans.
Rest in peace, Jimmy; you’ll never be forgotten, and you’ll be loved forever.
Playing on the TV was Avenged Sevenfold’s video for “Bat Country.” It was amazing; the music, the imagery…everything. It changed my life that day. I woke my friend up, and she loved it just as much as I did. We’ve both been big Avenged Sevenfold fans ever since that day in 2006. I’ll never forget my first impression of The Rev: “He’s an amazing drummer. I’ve never seen anyone play drums like that!”
When we got back from the convention, my friend and I were still excited about the song we’d heard that music. On the scorecards they give you in FFA for crops judging, which both of us did, we had written what lyrics we could remember on the back of the sheets. We got in trouble with our teacher/supervisor, but we didn’t care. We loved the music, and we wanted to write the lyrics down. We walked into our hotel room, wanting to listen to the song again. We wanted to hear other music by the band. So instead of buying food that night to eat, we used what money we had left for food to buy the CD, “City of Evil.” It was the best CD ever one of us had ever heard. It was stunningly amazing.
We listened to it the entire way back to our hometown, which was six hours away. Then, when we got there, we made a copy of the CD, because we’d had to combine our money to get the CD in the first place. So we made a copy and I took the original home, because her parents would have freaked if they saw the CD cover.
When I got home, I didn’t even eat right away, and I had been really hungry. I went upstairs and put the CD in my CD player and pushed ‘play’, letting the music fill the house. My Dad wasn’t living with us, and my Mom wasn’t home. So it didn’t matter how loud I had my music. I went back downstairs, and with the music filling the air, I made some food before going to the computer and looking up more stuff by Avenged.
As the years have passed since then, my love for Avenged Sevenfold hasn’t left me. I’m still as in love with their music as I was then, if not more. I can’t go even a few hours without listening to an Avenged Sevenfold song, and I have posters that decorate my walls of them. The background on my computer is frequently Avenged Sevenfold, and I have a binder full of my stories that I decorated with pictures and lyrics of them.
On November 9th, 2008, I saw Avenged Sevenfold perform at the Fargodome; the very city I had first heard Avenged Sevenfold in. The only reason I knew that Avenged was going to be there was because we had been in Bismarck doing a shopping trip, and I heard a commercial for the concert over the radio. The very second I heard that Avenged was going to be in Fargo, I knew I had to go. I told my Mom right then and there, as we were walking into Best Buy, that I had to go. She halfheartedly said, “We’ll see. It’s a long way from home to drive, and it would be expensive.”
But I didn’t care. I had to see that concert. I saved as much money from my job as I could, and not a day went by that I didn’t badger my Mom about going. Finally, about four weeks before the concert, she gave in, and ordered my ticket online. I went with a friend of mine who was living with us at the time, and everything was arranged. My Dad would drive the six hour journey to get us there, and back. We would stay at my cousin’s house, and I would be responsible for my own food.
But Mom knew that I wouldn’t have enough money if I had to pay for the gas and the food as well, so she gave me three hundred out of her own pocket to fund the trip. I was ecstatic; she realized how much I loved Avenged, and how much I wanted to see them. We left for Fargo on November 7th, and we got there that night.
The concert was amazing. I remember I was captivated by Jimmy’s drumming, much as I had been when I saw him on TV that first time I saw “Bat Country.” He was a spectacular drummer; he put his whole heart and soul into the sticks he was hitting the drums with, and he loved the fans so much. I cried when they sang ‘Seize The Day,’ and I cried when they performed their last song, ‘Almost Easy,’
When I heard the news that Jimmy had died, my world stopped. My legs started shaking so badly that I couldn’t stand on my own; I had to grab onto the walls for support. It was right after the band had posted it on their site, I think, and I was devastated. I started crying, and I haven’t stopped yet. I can’t sleep at night; I have nightmares of seeing him die, or just dreams where he’s chasing the Stallion Ducks and I wake up crying from them.
Jimmy meant, and still does mean, so much to his fans, friends, and family. He was an amazing person inside and out, and the best damn drummer I’ve ever seen or heard. The world is a dimmer, darker place without him; music will never be the same without him, or his passion for music and the fans.
Rest in peace, Jimmy; you’ll never be forgotten, and you’ll be loved forever.