Facts about Jimmy
• Jimmy wrote every part, Lyrics, riffs ect. of 4 of the songs written for the Avenged Sevenfold album.
• Jimmy was a self proclaimed perfectionist.
• Syn has given Jimmy informal guitar lessons through the years.
• Larry Jacobson, A7X Manager, says Jimmy looked like an octopus when he played “Almost Easy”.
• Jimmy joined the percussion ensemble at Harbor College in L.A. in the 6th thru the 8th grade.
• Jimmy began transcribing exceedingly difficult metal tunes including Metallica, Slayer, and Pantera eventually learning Dream Theatre and Rush.
• Jimmy’s parents wanted him to take piano lessons when he was 5 but he resisted them but secretly wanted to play.
• Jimmy started out at age 10 with a mail ordered drum kit which he calls crap. A year later he got his own kit. • Jimmy was raised Catholic.
• Jimmy lived with Brian for a while and Papa Gates had this to say about him: “Jimmy is eccentric to a nearly dangerous level. I would guess his I.Q. would be in excess of 160. He is possibly one of the most natural musicians I have ever met.”
• Jimmy’s drum tech was Jason Berry.
• Jimmy was chosen the runner up for best live performance and drummer of the year in Drum magazine’s 2008 list. • Jimmy has lived in many homes and at one time even lived in a laundry mat that he worked at.
• Jimmy thought he was too good to be in Matt’s original Band “Successful Failure”, not A7X.
• Jimmy was kicked off of the basketball team at Huntington Beach High School.
• Jimmy knew Johnny the longest because he was friends with Johnny’s’ Older brother.
• Jimmy stood 6'2.5 and had blue eyes.
• Despite Jimmy revealing his arachnophobia he allowed spiders to walk on his face for the “Afterlife” video. He said he did it for the fans.
• Jimmy has stated that he owns 6 cars. Almost one for every day of the week.
• Jimmy wrote the lyrics for “Almost Easy”, “Afterlife” and “A Little Peice of Heaven”. He also came up with the concept for “Brompton Cocktail”.
• Jimmy brought the fly swatter he used in the “Bat Country” Video from home. • Jimmy had lasix surgery just prior to his death.
• The song “Bring My Baby Back” is believed to be the last actual recorded song Jimmy played the drums on before his death. The song is on Brian Haner Sr’s album “Fist Fight at the Waffle House” which was released October 2010.
• Jimmy’s endearing quality was his off the cuff unpredictability interlaced with his infectious laughter.
• Jimmy judged the 2008 Drum Off Grand finals which was held in California.
• The fans continue to show their love for Jimmy: Jimmy was chosen #8 best drummer on Japans Burn Magazine’s 2011 readers poll.
• Jimmy loved the movie Jacob’s Ladder M. Shadows said in a 2010 interview. He however, always thought the movie was cheesy.
• Jacob’s ladder would turn out to be the concept for the “Nightmare” Video along with many direct references to Jimmy.
• Jimmy called himself “The Artist” because he perceived himself more of an artist than a musician.
• Jimmy and Syn Gates formed a band called Pinkly Smooth prior to joining A7X. They considered it to be mostly goblin Metal heavily influenced by Danny Elfman. They originally put the band on hold as they worked to make Avenged Sevenfold great. Jimmy Sang in the band, played keyboard, and drums.
• Jimmy was also in another band known as Third-Wave Ska band Suburban Legend. He was in this band with one of A7X’s former bassist, Justin Sane.
• Some of Jimmy’s favorite bands were the Transplants and Rancid.
• Jimmy said his influences were Vinnie Paul of Pantera, Dave Lombardo, Paul Bastaph of Slayer, and Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater.
• According to Jimmy’s parents Jimmy was never married to Leana “Silver” Mcfadden she was however his soulmate. M. Shadows has said Jimmy didn’t believe in marriage. Jimmy and Leana both have tattoos on their ring finger. Leana has Jimmy and Jimmy has Leana.
• You can see Leana in the video “Seize the Day” standing beside Jimmy in the funeral scene.
• Jimmy’s parents names are Joe and Barbara Sullivan. Jimmy has 2 sisters Kelly and Katie.
♥ Jimmy from the time he was just 2 months old he loved to beat on things from the table to his sisters head. This lead to his parents buying his first drum set. His mother said she had to buy it to preserve her furniture.
♥ Jimmy adored music from a very young age. At about 4 years old he began his musical exploration. His father said it was like a disease the second he discovered it.
♥ Through the years Jimmy went through different sizes of drum kits until at the age of 13 he got his “real” drum set.
♥ Jimmy was not afraid to play his drums with unbridled excitement. His parents attempted to get him a teacher to give him lessons but the guy was afraid Jimmy would break his kit and he couldn’t control him on the drums so they held off a while on getting him a teacher.
♥ When Jimmy was about 10 years old his parents found Jeanette Wrate who worked at Harbor College. She made Jimmy a part of her percussion group called the Looney Booms. She introduced him to playing unusual things such as water bottles and brake drums they would find at junk yards.
♥ They took Jimmy to see Metallica when he was 12 years old. His father said he would just get faster and faster with his musical tastes moving onto Slayer and Pantera. He later became interested in Dream Theater, Suicidal Tendencies, and Primus with their left field kind of sound.
♥ Jimmy’s mom loved Primus and they would listen to them traveling back and forth to drum practice. She said she took Jimmy and Brian (Synyster Gates) to a Primus concert one time.
♥ Jimmy’s mom Barbara said Jimmy knew Matt (M. Shadows) since they were about 10 years old when they played on the basketball team together. She goes onto say they hung out together and got into trouble together.
♥ Barbara and Joe found out about a particular comical incident after Jimmy’s passing. You see Jimmy would sneak out of his house when he was supposed to be sleeping. He would go to Matt’s (M. Shadows) and sneak inside. Matt’s parents not knowing he was there. We’ll Jimmy had a gun you lauched things with so they took it up on Matt’s roof and started shooting things onto the neighbors roof. The neighber finally figured out what was going on and came beating on Matt’s door in which Matt’s dad told him it can’t be them they are asleep then Jimmy ran out of the house and Matt’s dad banned him from coming back to their house.
♥ His parents shared that it was always hard to discipline Jimmy bacause everyone would start laughing so hard. If you told him it wasn’t funny he would reply “But it’s funny to me”.
♥ Jimmy was the class clown and would get sent to the office “Because he was just to damned funny” his father said.
♥ His mom said that many people have told her that the party never really got fun until Jimmy arrived.
♥ His father Joe said Jimmy had an obsessive tendency about anything he liked to do. When he learned to climb trees he would climb trees. He would even do his homework in the top of the tree. He also learned to swing on branches and eventually broke both of his arms doing so.
♥ Joe, Jimmy’s dad said he always dressed rather ridiculously. He said that one time while Jimmy was in Hollywood tourists were taking his pictures.
♥ Jimmy’s parents were really hoping that he wouldn’t move on to getting tattoos because it took him a while to get an interest in them but one day he came home with a basket full of colored eggs and a dead Easter Bunny laying on top of it on his forearm. Then as they remember it he came home a little later with his handcuffs around his neck and it just kept going from there. His parents first fear was how was he ever going to earn a living with visible tattoos. But by that time there was beginning to be real confidence that he was going to have an excellent music career which helped to dash their fears somewhat.
