My First Encounter With: Jimmy The Rev Sullivan

February 4th, 2013, it's been almost four years since The Rev passed away of natural causes; or so I had heard. Later on along the line I heard that he took in a mixture of prescribed drugs and alcohol, leaving everyone to believe that he killed himself on purpose. I don't believe that, but anyway, the cause of his death is not why I am writing. I am writing because I had a dream that was unlike any other dream I've ever had. In this dream, I met The Rev for the first time ever. For a long while, I wasn't big on listening to the radio or keeping up with entertainment news on the internet, especially on what band was coming to town. Don't ask why, I just didn't. I was a fan of A7X ever since Bat country was released. Several times they came to town and I wouldn't know about it until my friends told me that they were in town. Only they wouldn't tell me until the day of the concert. And to be bigger jerks about it, they would even call me from the concert just to tell me how awesome it was and brag to me about missing it. Believe me, I was super pissed, but I guess it was partly my fault.

Anyhow, I knew that they were all great, but I never really knew the greatness of Jimmy until after he passed away. I felt guilty for not realizing it sooner, but one day I will. So let me skip all the details and go right ahead to the dream that changed my life foREVer.

The day was bright, sunny and sort of looked like how the earth looks like when the sun shines after a big storm. I was sitting outside on my front porch, just messing with a stick and looking down at my shoes from time to time. Later on, I start to hear a group of people in the distance, laughing and talking as they all walked closer to where I was. I studied the group of people and they were mostly girls. One guy in the middle of the bunch stood out, and I knew instantly that it was Jimmy. He was wearing all black and had his hair how he usually had it. The sun shined down on him like it was some sort of glow, and his smile made the light become even brighter. He was very handsome and so full of life. I tried so hard not to stare, but it was Jimmy that I was looking at! I couldn't help but smile every time he did.

Along his side was a young blonde woman with bright blue eyes, she looked to be in her late teens to early twenties. I'm guessing she was a friend of his. As the group walked closer to my house, she could tell that I was staring at Jimmy and for some reason, she rushed over to me. She called my name and for some reason, she made it seem like she knew me. Almost like we were best friends for a really long time, only I had no clue as to who she was. She pulled me over to the group and led me straight to Jimmy. I didn't know what to say, I was over starstruck. I finally was able to look at him to say hi, and the first thing that comes out of his mouth is, "You must be Leslie. Hi, I'm Jimmy." And the first thing that comes out of my mouth is, "I know who you are." After a moment, I went on to tell him how I wished that I was able to go to an Avenged concert while he was alive and how upset I was for missing it. He then tells me, "I'm actually throwing a concert in town tonight, if you would like to go." I suddenly became super stoked and said yes.

Later on that night, I show up to the show just as he was going on stage. I was able to get backstage because he told the staff that I was going to show up. Majority of the night, I stood right at the curtain to watch the show from up close. In the middle of their show, Jimmy saw me and waved over to me to go over to him. When I made it to his drumset, all I heard was "Sit on my lap." I didn't know what to expect, but I did so anyway and I could see the millions in the audience as far as the eyes could see. Finally they started to play their next song and Jimmy played the rest of the night with me sitting on his lap the entire time. It was an awesome feeling.

After the concert, Jimmy and I met up with the group of people that he was hanging out with before I met him. We all took a walk around the town and finally stopped at a small burger hut to eat, and we all winded up pulling a dine and dash. The other girls ran in one direction and Jimmy and I ran in another direction. We lost track of the others and decided to just hang out the rest of the night, just the two of us. We walked until we made a stop at a park and laid in the grass next to a tree. Being the gentleman that he was, he gave me his leather Avenged Sevenfold jacket to wear because I was cold.

The whole night we talked about things we had in common, told funny stories and, well, just had deep conversations. Hours go by and the sun finally started to rise. Jimmy looked at the sun and then looked at me. The very last words he told me were, "I'm glad I met you. We will see each other again." I smiled at him and said, "I hope so. I'm glad I met you too." He smiled at me and kissed me goodbye. I looked as he got up and walked away as my dream suddenly turned completely white and I woke up.

And that was my story as to how I met Jimmy. I know that there will be critics about this and people who will give me shit, but I felt that this needed to be shared, especially with all of the A7X fans out there. Leave me your comments as to what this dream meant or about how awesome it was. R.I.P. Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan.

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