Beloved Parma heavy metal musician Jim Konya passed away Wednesday October 7 at the age of 44. He had a stroke in early September; he was in rehab and appeared to be making progress when he suffered seizures and a second major stroke from which he never recovered.
Konya’s hundreds of friends and friendly acquaintances in the music scene — and it seemed like if Jim ever met you, he considered you his friend — followed his progress anxiously for weeks before receiving the bad news that he was being taken off life support and passed away peacefully.
Konya had been in many bands — he never stopped playing from the time he was in high school at Normandy where he graduated in 1989. The best-known and longest running were Schnauzer and Nunslaughter. He played drums for the latter for the last 20 years under the name “Jim Sadist,’ and toured extensively with them, expanding his network of musical pals around the world.
Anyone who knew him recalls his boundless passion for heavy music — and for sharing the music he loved as widely as possible. In fact, his generosity comes up in every conversation about him. Almost everyone who crossed his path has a story about how he gifted them with stickers, posters, T-shirts and records.
His friends, bandmates, former bandmates, acquaintances and fans gave back by raising nearly $28,000 on his GoFundMe page to cover his medical expenses, and hosting a benefit at Now That’s Class on October 2 that raised more than $4,500.
Nearly 2,000 people signed a petition asking Parma mayor Tim DeGeeter to award him a posthumous key to the city. Parma is northeast Ohio’s metal Ground Zero, and Konya liked to refer to himself as “the mayor of Parma.”
A lot of people think of him as some crazy heavy-metal badass in satanic rock band T-shirts,” said Bill Peters, host of Cleveland’s premier metal radio show, Metal on Metal, in the petition posted by Joseph Aufricht. “But the Jim I know is the kind of person who would offer rides to strangers at the end of the night — a good person and very giving.”
“Jim gave his entire life; not just in his performance or material good, but in his kindness,” writes Aufricht. “Whenever someone was a straggler he was there to say hello. Whenever someone stranded he was there to find a way home; whenever someone was down he was there to make them laugh, whenever someone was having a good time he was there to make them have a better one.”
“Konya bled, sweat and scolded for Parma,” he continues. “He was the man from Parma, and Konya IS Parma. People in Thailand, Indonesia, Pacific Islands, people who don’t even know a word of English know one word after tour encounters — they know the word “Parma.”
DeGeeter has responded that while Parma doesn’t normally give out keys to the city, they will honor Konya posthumously at the November city council meeting (open to the public) as the Parma Citizen of the Month.
Konya’s burial mass took place October 10; there will be a memorial at a later date.