RIP Kelly Holland

In the spring of 1993, I was a junior at Syracuse University and my friend and I had part-time gigs at local radio stations.  One day, I was visiting Scooter in his studio at Syracuse rock station 95x when he waved a CD single in the air.  "Dude", he said excitedly.  "You've got to hear this.  It's gonna be the song of the summer."  The song was "Peace Pipe" by a band called Cry of Love.

Fast forward 10 years later, and I'm a newbie at 96rock when a guy by the name of Warren Hall sets up a meeting with me.  Warren had just started a burgeoning website called zspotlight.com, and he brought along a guy who played in a local cover band called Crush to discuss an event we were promoting together.  He introduced himself as Kelly Holland, and I couldn't quite figure out where I knew that name from.  "Kelly used to play in a band called Cry of Love", Warren mentioned.  My mouth literally dropped.

Kelly Holland had one of the great voices in rock, and Cry of Love was a band loaded with talent - other members moved on to Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Black Crowes - but Kelly was only with the band for one album.  It was, by far, the band's biggest album, and by measure of Billboard charting ("Peace Pipe" was a #1 Billboard mainstream rock hit), Cry of Love was one of the most successful bands to come out of Raleigh.

Over the years, he played in various local bands including drums & vocals for Crush, the most well-known Triangle cover band.  Those that got a chance to see him were treated to one of Raleigh's best.

Kelly Holland died of a severe abdominal infection early this morning at the age of 52.

Here is the obituary from the News & Observer's David Menconi:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/02/24/3650673/kelly-holly-lead-voice-of-cry.html

Rest in Peace.

Foster
P.R.O. (Petty RadioHead Officer)