JUDAS PRIEST's ROB HALFORD Says 'It Was Beautiful' To See DAVE HOLLAND Inducted Into ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME

JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford says that he is thrilled that the band's late drummer Dave Holland was part of PRIEST's induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Speaking to PVT's Rock N Roll James, Halford said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Dave has been up in heaven for a few years now. He passed away. But I thought it was beautiful that they included him in the induction, as they do. Your music lives forever. That's what's so important. And so we were representing Dave in spirit. His drum work on all those albums that he made with us — 'British Steel' especially — man, he was a great drummer."

Holland died in January 2018 in Lugo, Spain, where the 69-year-old had reportedly been residing after spending several years in a British jail for attempting to rape a teenage boy. The drummer was sentenced in January 2004 of trying to assault the 17-year-old in his cottage in Northamptonshire, England, while giving him drumming lessons. The abuse was revealed in a letter written by the teenager to his parents. Holland always denied any involvement in the attempted rape of the special-needs student and was at one point said to be planning to write a tell-all biography of his life and career.

In reporting on Holland's passing, the Spanish newspaper El Progreso said that he had lived discreetly in a secluded part of Spain and had been described by the neighbors who knew him as "very kind and polite."

Dave joined PRIEST in 1979 and stayed in the band for a decade, playing on such classic albums as "British Steel" (1980), "Point Of Entry" (1981), "Screaming For Vengeance" (1982), "Defenders Of The Faith" (1984), "Turbo" (1986) and "Ram It Down" (1988). He exited the band in 1989 and was replaced by Scott Travis. Holland was also a founding member of TRAPEZE alongside Glenn Hughes and Mel Galley, his bandmates from a previous group named FINDERS KEEPERS.

The JUDAS PRIEST members who got inducted into the Rock Hall at last month's ceremony include current members Halford, Ian Hill (bass),Glenn Tipton (guitar) and Travis, along with former members Holland, K.K. Downing (guitar) and Les Binks (drums).

A few days after Holland's death, Downing issued a statement in which he called the drummer "a solid friend in life and solid musician both on the stage and in the studio."

In February 2019, Downing's book collaborator claimed to have obtained new information about Holland which painted the band's disgraced drummer in a far different light than the public had previously known. Scottish author and journalist Mark Eglinton, who co-wrote Downing's 2018 autobiography, "Heavy Duty: Days And Nights In Judas Priest", said that he was given the new information by a purported friend of Holland's who wanted to inform people of "a very sad injustice" which had been perpetrated upon someone who she claimed was "a true gentleman."