Avenged Sevenfold wanted to give "a young kid a chance"

Fri, 29 Jul 2011

At the end of last year, Avenged Sevenfold released a statement to announce that their time with Mike Portnoy had come to an end.

Although the drummer would have been happy to stay with the Huntington Beach band for the long-haul, the band, had made the decision to find and give a young drummer a chance of a lifetime. 

In a recent issue of Guitar World, lead guitarist Synyster Gates explained, "My whole thing after Jimmy died was if we were ever going to do this, I wanted to give a young kid a chance. That would have been a dream come true, to breathe some new life from a death."

Speaking about Portnoy’s decision to leave Dream Theater in the middle of 2010, Zacky Vengeance said, "When he went and quit Dream Theater, that was something we had no say in, because he's a grown man and he makes his own decisions. But we had urged against it, fully knowing we weren't ready to commit to him. But it's his life."

The band still consider Portnoy family and will "Always be so thankful" and feel  "truthfully he was really the only man for the job" when it comes to what he did helping them get back on the road.

Current touring drummer, Arin Ilejay was found when the band looked to their producer Mike Elizondo and "The Rev's" drum tech, Mike Fasano, for any young and up and coming drummers. They also tried out a youngster from YouTube, but Fasano's suggestion of Ilejay became the band’s choice.

"He came in and was probably the skinniest, most nervous kid I've ever seen. We'd never heard of any of the bands he had played in, knew nothing about him, but he sat down and just started wailing. It reminded me of John Bonham or something. We all had these huge smiles on our faces." Zacky Vengeance recalls.

The full interview is available in Guitar World’s current issue, which is onsale now.

Avenged Sevenfold are currently preparing to headline the Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival next month in the US & Canada visit www.avengedsevenfold.com for tour dates.

---
In issue 2 of iDrum Magazine, editor Ian Croft talks to Mike Portnoy about his time with Avenged Sevenfold (Shot backstage at the A7X Brighton show in November).



Related products:
Learn to Play Avenged Sevenfold >>
Quick Licks Shred Metal: Synyster Gates >>
Metal Shred in 6 weeks by Andy James >>
Metal Rhythm in 6 weeks by Andy James >>
20 Killer Metal Riffs >>