James Owen Sullivan as The Rev (1999-2009)

James Owen Sullivan (February 9, 1981 – December 28, 2009), more commonly known by his stage name The Reverend Tholomew Plague, generally shortened to The Rev, was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. He was also the lead vocalist/pianist in Pinkly Smooth, a side project where he was known by the name Rat Head, with fellow Avenged Sevenfold member, guitarist Synyster Gates, and the drummer for Suburban Legends from 1998 to 1999.

Career

Sullivan grew up and lived in Huntington Beach California. He received his first pair of drum sticks at the age of four and own drum set at the age of ten. In high school, he started playing in bands. Before leaving to join Avenged Sevenfold as one of the band's founding members, Sullivan was the drummer for the third wave ska band Suburban Legends. At the age of eighteen he recorded his first album with Avenged Sevenfold titled Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. His early influences included Frank Zappa and King Crimson. The Rev said in a Modern Drummer Magazine interview that "I was raised on that stuff as much as rock and metal."

Later in life he was influenced by drummers pak tam Vinnie Paul, Mike Portnoy, Dave Lombardo, Lars Ulrich, and Terry Bozzio. He even had a "visual influence", Tommy Lee, on which he commented that "I never thought I'd have one of those." Sullivan's signature ability which he called " double-ride , just for lack of a better definition,"is a technique that can be heard on tracks such as "Almost Easy", "Critical Acclaim", and "Crossroads" in which Sullivan doubles up at a fast tempo between the double bass and ride cymbals.

Sullivan spoke to DRUM! Magazine about recording "Crossroads": “The second fill that goes into the verse, and the fill that goes into the chorus, just happened in the studio. We knew there’s a break right before the first verse starts and the guitar’s doing an open chord, so there obviously needed to be a fill there to keep the energy there, and I just came up with a little tom-over-double-bass fill. That was just spur of the moment. And right before the solo, there’s another fill that’s kind of similar to the intro fill, and that was written out. But everything else is pretty much spontaneous"

The Rev was also a vocalist, songwriter, and pianist for Avenged Sevenfold. His piano-playing can be heard on the tracks "Seize the Day", "Fiction", "Save Me", and "Warmness on the Soul" found on the album Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. His vocals are featured in Avenged Sevenfold's "A Little Piece of Heaven", "Brompton Cocktail", "Critical Acclaim", "Crossroads", "Gunslinger", "Lost", "Scream", "Afterlife", "Save Me", "Eternal Rest", "Flash Of The Blade", "Bat Country", "Almost Easy", and "Fiction". He also wrote the songs "Almost Easy", "A Little Piece of Heaven", "Afterlife", "Brompton Cocktail", "Welcome to the Family, the piano part of "Save Me", "Demons", "Fiction", and more.

Avenged Sevenfold also released a demo version of Nightmare, featuring The Rev on an electric drumset and some vocals of his.

At the second annual Revolver Golden God Awards, The Rev won the award for Best Drummer. His family members and Avenged Sevenfold received the honor on his behalf.

Death

The Rev was found dead in his home on December 28, 2009. Police ruled out foul play and noted his death appeared to be from natural causes. An autopsy performed on December 30, 2009 was inconclusive, but toxicology results revealed to the public in June that he died from an overdose of Oxycodone (Percocet), oxymorphone (a metabolite of oxycodone), diazepam (Valium), nordiazepam (a metabolite of diazepam) and alcohol. The coroner noted Cardiomegaly (enlarged heart) as a "significant condition" that may have played a role in Sullivan's death.

On January 6, 2010, a private funeral was held for Sullivan, and then he was buried in Huntington Beach, California. Shortly after his death, Avenged Sevenfold dedicated their fifth studio album Nightmare to him, as well as several songs, including So Far Away (which had been written by fellow band mate Synyster Gates.).“His drum kit is now on display at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas”.

Equipment

The Rev used Drum Workshop (DW) drums, and is noted for having a triple-bass drum set-up (although he only operated the first two on the left and center of the kit). He also used DW 9000 pedals, and a DW Super Rack to mount his drums. He also used Sabian cymbals; although he had a set of Zildjian cymbals which he used in the studio. He used Pro-mark Natural 5B drum sticks, and Evans drum heads.

Discography

With Suburban Legends

Origin Edition (1999)

With Pinkly Smooth

Unfortunate Snort (2001)

With Avenged Sevenfold

1999 Demo (1999)

2000 Demo (2000)

Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (2001)

Waking the Fallen (2003)

City of Evil (2005)

All Excess (2007)

Avenged Sevenfold (2007)

Live in the LBC & Diamonds in the Rough (2008)

Nightmare (2010) (Posthumous)