CALIFORNIA SCREAMING

Along with Avenged Sevenfold, Orange County’s Bleeding Through pioneered the South California metalcore revolution. Frontman Brandan Schieppati remembers his friend The Rev

So how did you first meet The Rev?

“Bleeding Through and Avenged Sevenfold toured with each other all of the damn time, both the shitty tours and the good tours. The thing I remember about The Rev is that he was always the most positive person there.”

How so?

“At a show in Richmond, Virginia, everybody sat down during Avenged Sevenfold’s set. Like, it was some weird, stupid hardcore kids’ boycott of Avenged Sevenfold. After the show, I asked, ‘Dudes, how do you guys feel about that?’ and Jimmy was like, ‘We played fucking awesome! I had a great time.’ No matter where he was, he was having the best time.”

What kind of interests did he have?

“For him, drumming was the pinnacle of his life – he made it. I read these stories about how he’d sleep in a laundromat so he could practise there at night, or how he’d practise under the stands at Huntington Beach High School because there was no one there and it was OK to make noise. His agenda was just to play drums in a rock band and he accomplished that.”

What do you think his legacy is?

“He made it cool again for a drummer to twirl his sticks and put on a fucking show back there. He brought that 80s hair metal style back into the modern rock and metal world. Whenever we were on the road with Avenged Sevenfold and I was at side-stage, I’d literally be watching Jimmy the whole time.”