Last Original Member of Molly Hatchet Steve Holland Dies
Steve Holland—the last surviving member of the influential Southern rock band Molly Hatchet’s most legendary lineup, passed away Sunday (8-2) after a prolonged illness. The guitarist for the group helped perfect the double guitar attack that became the band’s signature, and can be heard on their most memorable hit “Flirtin’ With Disaster.”
Singer Danny Joe Brown passed away in 2005, guitarist Duane Roland died in 2006, drummer Bruce Crump passed in 2015, and guitarist Dave Hlubeck and bassist Banner Thomas died in 2017. Hlubeck officially started the band in 1971 in Jacksonville, FL, but the band didn’t rise to prominence until 1978 with the release of their self-titled record. 1979 and the album Flirtin’ With Disaster is what put them on the national map. Steve Holland joined in 1974 as the band was forming its classic six-piece lineup.
Born in Dothan, Alabama, Steve Holland began playing guitar at the age of 8, and moved to Jacksonville, FL in the early 70’s. He met Dave Hlubeck at a local record store, and the rest of the principle members of the band were in place by 1976, eventually signing to Epic Records. When the place crash involving fellow Jacksonville-based Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd left a void in the Southern rock space, Molly Hatchet stepped up.
Steve Holland recorded on multiple Molly Hatchet records and performed with the band through their heyday, leaving in 1983 after the band released the album No Guts…No Glory as the band was adopting a more hard rock sound. He was replaced by keyboardist John Gavin. Holland later formed the band Gator Country in 2005 with former members of Molly Hatchet. Gator Country had been keeping fans abreast of Holland’s health concerns recently, and announced his passing on Sunday.
“It Is With GREAT SADNESS That I Announce The PASSING Of ‘ORIGINAL’ MOLLY HATCHET Band / GATOR COUNTRY Band Co-Founder Lead Guitarist, STEVE HOLLAND,” said a statement. “Steve Was The LAST MAN STANDING And Has Joined The REST Of His FELLOW Band Brothers Up In Heaven. Steve’s Health Had Been On A Downward Spiral For A While, With Steve Finally Getting His ANGEL WINGS Today August 2nd, 2020. You Will Always Be One Of The GREATEST STEVE!!”
Molly Hatchet also posted a message via social media, saying, “Our deepest condolences are sent to the family of Steve Holland, guitarist and co-founder of Molly Hatchet of his passing. Steve left the band in 1984. He will be missed and remembered by all. RIP 1954-2020.”
Molly Hatchet continues to perform with a new lineup. Steve Holland’s cause of death has not been revealed, but he had been ailing for some time.
August 3, 2020 @ 7:20 pm
Wow! Loved Flirting With Disaster, Whiskey Man, Its All Over Now, Etc. Kinda sad to see a band from my college days where all members have now passed away. Time passes but their music will live on!
August 3, 2020 @ 8:02 pm
Flirtin’ With Disaster was a driving song back in the day. Molly Hatchet definitely had some of coolest album covers during their time.
August 4, 2020 @ 5:38 am
Frank Frazetta was the artist. My artistically inclined best friend was a big fan of his and had at least a couple of books showing his work. The cover of the Expect No Mercy album by Nazareth is also by Frazetta.
August 3, 2020 @ 8:49 pm
Glad to have come of age in the 60s and 70s.
Molly Hatchet and the Outlaws in the late 70s was one of the best concerts I ever attended..
August 4, 2020 @ 8:03 am
Holland, Hlubek and Roland were the magic. Let Paul’s, Thunderbirds, Marshall stacks on 11, twin and triple harmony leads, hair blowing in the wind, the big rock star syncopated stage moves, and Danny Joe Brown hollering out “did you know 500 dollars will get your head blowed off…it will hahaha” (Bounty Hunter) OH yeah!
Holland was a player! He was the one who came up with that cool arrangement of Dreams Ill Never See. On Flirtin With Disaster the first solo is Hlubek, second solo is Roland and then the twin leads with Steve just ripping on that Gibson! What a killer player he was!
” Theres a Gator in the bushes , hes calling my name, and i say, cmon home boy , ya better make it back home again, many roads i travel, they all kinda look the same, there’s a Gator in the bushes , Lord hes calling my name…ohhh Gator Country!
August 4, 2020 @ 8:18 am
… little bit of that chomp, chomp
August 4, 2020 @ 3:46 pm
I am sure I will get a lot of flack for this, but Molly Hatchet’s version of Dreams I’ll Never See has always been, and will remain In my mind, the definitive version of that song. I am a huge Allman Brothers fan, but their version doesn’t compare in my opinion. Between the stellar guitar work Of Holland and the other guitarists, and Danny JoeBrown’s amazing voice, Molly Hatchet took a fantastic song and made it one of the best of all time. At least, one of the best ever of southern rock songs.
August 4, 2020 @ 4:35 pm
No argument here. We think alike. The Allman Brothers are the greatest southern rock band of all time, period. Musically they were incredibly sophisticated and just say the names Duane, Dickey, Gregg, they speak for themselves.
But….Molly Hatchet was a terrific band and capable of holding their own. You are correct about Dreams. Hatchets version is definitive and an improvement. From that opening echo riff that you hear, to those gorgeous melodic solos that Holland and company deliver to Danny’s phrasing, the song just soars to epic heights. Its the real deal. Curiously Gregg Allman was asked his opinion on Hatchets take on his song, he replied No Comment. I guess he probably couldn’t bring himself to admit they owned it. That song was always one of his personal favorites and im guessing a little ego thing was going on there. It was his baby and how dare they change it.
August 4, 2020 @ 6:55 pm
Right on the money. It’s my favorite Molly Hatcher song.
May 2, 2021 @ 6:48 am
I had no older siblings, so I only knew a few songs by Skynyrd, but M.H. busted out at my H.S., here in VA Beach when I was 16. Some of the guys from my school who were big Skynyrd fans started a fairly successful band here called “VA. Fire Band”. They played “Dreams I’ll Never See” after M.H. released it. It was my favorite song ever, and I didn’t even know A.B. had done it, though “Ramblin’ Man” was likely the first Southern Rock I ever listened for in Elementary school. You could turn the am dial to WCMS, the local country station, and hear ut almost every hour. Then came “Heard It In A Love Song. We went on a H.S. skiing trip to Canada, and “Flirtin’ came out that week. My buddy had it on cassette. We listened to that tape a hundred times in four days, and my love of MH music was on from there. Between Main Events in Portsmouth, Rockin’ In the Woods in Surry, Memorial Rock Jams in Fredericksburg, and what seemed like monthly shows at The Boathouse in Norfolk, I lost count of all the shows, but they felt like our hometown band, even though Steve is the only one who ever lived in V.B.(RIP). I’m 60 today and only just realized that he too had passed last year. What a shame every one of them is gone now. I only learned in recent years, that R.V.Z. had gotten close to some of the band, and may have had plans to have them open for Skynyrd on tour. I would love to have seen them callin’ out MH to do the encore together, just once. Danny J was a beast down at the Surry Harley dirt track. He climbed up on the chicken wire that they put up in front of the stage to stop bottles, & ripped that crap down. Best shows ever.
November 15, 2021 @ 9:40 pm
Molly Hatchett will be missed for sure
Only thing left now are knock off cover groups
August 4, 2020 @ 5:48 am
Having known Steve for only the last five years of his life, he shared with me a lot of funny stories of his adventures with the band. He still had a great sense of humor despite being sick. I will miss seeing him.
August 4, 2020 @ 6:47 am
Man. Sixty six is pretty young to be the last surviving member. Makes me think of the Ramones a little.
First time I ever heard of Molly Hatchet is when I saw them open for the Outlaws up in Poughkeepsie, NY. I’m thinking it was November 1978. I guess their first album came out in September. Nothing on it had made it to NYC rock radio yet and so probably not Upstate NY rock radio, either (Poughkeepsie had a good rock station called WPDH that we could get sometimes). So no one knew who they were. And they just killed. The talk in the men’s room after their set was basically “best warm up band I’ve ever seen, man!” Sometime shortly after, I saw their first album in my local record store and picked it up. Dreams I’ll Never See (an amped up remake of Dreams by The Allman Brothers) was the best song on it and is still my favorite by them.
August 4, 2020 @ 7:48 am
“And I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd but I sure saw Molly Hatchet
With 38 Special and the Johnny Van Zant Band.”
– Patterson Hood, DBTs, Let There Be Rock
I also never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I sure did see Molly Hatchet with 38 Special and the Johnny Van Zant Band in Rupp Arena in 1980.
August 4, 2020 @ 9:29 am
Sad news. One of the few bands from my youth that I still listen to regularly. RIP
August 4, 2020 @ 9:59 am
what can I say I always loved this band seen this band countless times beautiful men awesome artists will be deeply sadly missed I’ll always be rocking with you in my heart soul and the Bose system in my car rest in peace
August 4, 2020 @ 10:22 am
I wore the groves out on my flirtin’ with disaster record. I saw them several times with nearly the original Line up with Danny in vocals great live band. Had a hand in booking what passed for Hatchet in 2007 with that years touring line up of Blackfoot in San Antonio, Texas what a great night of southern rock. RIP MAESTRO!!!
August 4, 2020 @ 2:48 pm
R.I.P. much gratitude for the great music you gave to the world.
August 4, 2020 @ 6:57 pm
My first concert was Molly Hatchet at the (then) Tangerine Bowl in Orlando. They opened for Bob Seger on his “Against The Wind” tour.
August 4, 2020 @ 8:04 pm
Molly Hatchet played at our high school prom in Dahlonega Ga in about 76- 77. Still a picture in our year book of their name on our high school wall as the band that would be playing. They showed up in a old kinda yellow chevy station wagon and started unloading equipment. I remember that they rocked it out. I don’t think Danny Joe Brown was the singer then but not sure about that. I loved their music and especially what those guys could do with a guitar. Will never forget Molly Hatchet. RIP
August 5, 2020 @ 7:03 pm
Man, the memories of road trips and being outside with this band blasting … And they were blasting. Deafening. In a good way.
August 8, 2020 @ 1:29 pm
Hatchet’s version of Dreams is really a cover of Buddy Miles version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omNPPv6mhJY
August 9, 2020 @ 1:51 am
Wow. It surprises me that I hadn’t heard this yet, considering I live in Jacksonville, and grew up not far from where one of the bandmembers lived. Requiescat in pace, Steve Holland.
August 9, 2020 @ 5:37 am
Godspeed…. You have always been part of my life growing up into today. I know all of the bandmates are in heaven jamming up.
October 12, 2020 @ 12:06 pm
I saw Molly Hatchet in the mid-late 70’s at a tiny club in Stockton CA. I think it was called The Brickworks. One of my very favorite bands ever and Dreams is my favorite song although I just love their style and ability. That show was amazing and super intimate. Saw the new lineup in the 2000’s in Ventura CA but the sound guy stunk and it just wasn’t the same. I still listen to them all the time and have gotten my boy loving them too. In fact he took me to the Ventura show as a birthday gift. Great memories with those boys blasting out of my car stereo back then.
August 25, 2021 @ 1:51 am
Being a Florida boy I grew up on Skynyrd, Hatchet, Outlaws, 38 special and Stranger. Gator Country should be Florida’s state song! RIP to all the southern Rock Musicians we have lost! I’ll see ya’ll in Heaven soon enough! Save me a seat to the concert in Heaven!
November 12, 2022 @ 6:17 pm
I WAS INTRODUCED TO MOLLY HATCHET, THE RIGHT WAY, UNDERGROUND?….IN THE BASEMENT, OF THE “DEMPSEY HOTEL” IN MACON, GA.(namely, the red lamp lounge)~!…my brother & me, were living there, in 1975, and him & a friend, were looking for GRANT’S LOUNGE, when they got side tracked, asking for directions??…but, couldn’t help hearing, the sound, rattttling the door???…the next night, he had me there, AS THE SHYTT HYTT THE FANZ~!! …I TOLD “ALAN WALDEN”…he took “JACK ARMSTRONG”…and the next time, i saw them, i convinced, D.J. BROWN, to promise, they would be, my first concert??…ON MARCH 15th, 1979 they opened “DIXIE MUSIC HALL” in DESTIN, FLA…the rest is 40yrs. of HISTORY*****
February 15, 2023 @ 6:15 pm
Stevie Holland lives with me here on St Simons Island and he jam like one son of a gun on a guitar and I play the drums for the guy.. but as fate would have it he got shipped back down to Florida because the general manager screwed him around and he wasn’t getting his royalties. I tried to put a stop to it but wasn’t sure how to go about it and then Stevie went back into rehab.. it was a screwed up situation and as they admitted him to the little funny farm here in Brunswick Georgia where he passed away was a god-awful upside down idiot move on all their parts because he did not need that and it will always be on my conscience how I couldn’t intervene because they won’t let you unless you are kinfolk and Stevie had no kinfolk so let’s refigure the world right one of the greatest artists ever one of the greatest bands ever couldn’t get any outside help because of government FUCKING IDIOT SHIT !
February 15, 2023 @ 6:22 pm
They renamed themselves as Gator Country and
as they played in Palatka Florida at the time.. only to succumb to the lead singers six month venture who sounded just like Danny Ray Joe.. had a mild stroke and after only 6 months of regrouping.. was scared to death to play again and then they lost every member since.. they were forerunners of Lynyrd Skynyrd they were twice the band Lynyrd Skynyrd ever was..