“His music was very challenging and dangerous, but the Rev was always just a down-to-earth guy that was very humble, with no ego. He always treated me with the ultimate respect and I always enjoyed his presence. He was great.”

“Jimmy had an innovative style. He was able to blend rock and metal with the best of them. He was very creative, not just as a drummer, but as a songwriter as well. And he had such a warm heart. He never wanted anyone to feel left out or feel second rate. He was a special drummer and a special person. Though his short life came to an end abruptly, he lived a life one can only dream of. I will never forget him.”

On December 28, 2009, Avenged Sevenfold's drummer, The Rev, passed away suddenly.
Four years ago this week, after joining the quintet in Los Angeles, we told the story of the unbreakable bond that lies at the heart of A7X.
It seemed like the right time to tell that story again...

“There wasn’t a lot of conscious thought about what kind of record I was making. I was just pooling all of these people together and it was a devil-may-care kind of thing, but once I started to look at the list of people I’d already worked with, sort of halfway through the record, I had some of my heroes on there, some of my contemporaries and I wanted to have some young guys.

“For this song I was thinking that Dave Mustaine would’ve been great, but I didn’t want to spin way too much into any one era. Then I thought of Avenged Sevenfold, and fortunately we share the same management so M Shadows was easy to contact! And he was great, he came in and worked really hard to get the melodies together, he took it very seriously. It’s me getting away with something I couldn’t do in Velvet Revolver!”