Donnie Iris dies at 83, 17 days after his retirement

Donnie Iris, the Pittsburgh singer who took the Jaggerz to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970 and had an early-1980s hit with 'Ah! Leah!', died Monday at 83, 17 days after retiring from live performance.

The death was announced on Facebook on Monday by Joe Vitale Jr., the drummer in Donnie Iris and the Cruisers, who wrote that "today my boss and friend Donnie Iris passed away at the age of 83." Iris had been fighting bladder cancer for three years, Variety reported. Rich Engler, a regional concert promoter and longtime friend, confirmed the death, TribLive reported.

Iris played his last concert on Sept. 28 at Citizens Live at the Wylie, a new venue in Pittsburgh's Lower Hill District, performing seated after undergoing radiation earlier that day.

The last show, seated

Iris announced the retirement in a letter posted to Facebook on Oct. 9, citing recent health issues. "Music has given me far more than I could ever put into words," he wrote, in a passage quoted by Billboard. "From the earliest days to every chapter of my life, your support has been a constant source of joy and inspiration."

The letter thanked his daughters and the rest of his family, along with the musicians, crew members, promoters and venues of a six-decade career. The fans, he wrote, had made that life possible.

Iris was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2023, shortly after a sold-out show for his 80th birthday, Billboard reported. He canceled a June 2023 date in Youngstown with REO Speedwagon after the diagnosis and went back on stage in March 2024, following chemotherapy, according to WPXI.

Mark Avsec met Iris in Wild Cherry in the late 1970s and was still playing keyboards beside him at the Wylie. He described that night to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

He sang like a bird that night. It was the first time on a chair, and he didn't like that. But the poor guy, the cancer was spreading, and he was in pain, and he really wanted to do that show and be with the people.

"For my money, he was the most beloved Pittsburgh musician of all time," Joe Grushecky, the leader of the Iron City Houserockers, told the Post-Gazette. Grushecky said Iris had a warmth that came through in his performance. Variety noted that Grushecky himself would have been one of the few other candidates for the title.

Weddings, doo-wop and the Jaggerz

Dominic Ierace was born on Feb. 28, 1943, in New Castle, Pa., grew up in Ellwood City and started singing at weddings as a child, TribLive reported. His mother taught him to sing, WPXI said.

He sang with the doo-wop group the Fabutons in high school, then with the cover bands the Tri-Vels and Donnie and the Donnells at Slippery Rock State College, which he left to pursue music, Billboard reported. Those campus groups played R&B and pop covers at fraternity parties, according to Vice. The Jaggerz were formed in 1964 and released a first album, 'Introducing the Jaggerz,' in 1969.

The band signed to Gamble Records, the label founded by the Philadelphia producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, which released that debut. 'The Rapper' came on the second album, 'We Went to Different Schools Together,' on Kama Sutra Records. The single reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 in 1970. The title referred to a smooth talker working a bar, not to the genre, whose name did not yet exist.

Iris left the Jaggerz in 1976, Vice reported. He joined Wild Cherry two years after that band's hit 'Play That Funky Music' and performed on its 1979 album 'Only the Wild Survive,' according to Billboard. He and Avsec then left to form Donnie Iris and the Cruisers.

The first Cruisers lineup added the guitarist Marty Lee Hoenes, the drummer Kevin Valentine and the bassist Albritton McClain. Their 1980 debut, 'Back on the Streets,' came out on Midwest Records and reached No. 57 on the Billboard 200. 'Ah! Leah!' peaked at No. 29 on the Hot 100, and 'My Girl,' from the next album, went to No. 25, the band's highest chart placing.

Dropped by MCA in 1984

The follow-up, 'King Cool,' reached No. 84 in 1981 and was the last Cruisers album to break the top 100. Billboard described the band's sound as power pop punch mixed with new wave synthesizers. 'The High and the Mighty' stopped at No. 180 in 1982 and 'Fortune 410' at No. 127 in 1983. MCA dropped the band in 1984.

'No Muss... No Fuss' came out on the independent label HME in 1985 and reached No. 115. Valentine and McClain left just before it was released, starting decades of changing lineups around Iris and Avsec. The band charted again with 'Injured in the Game of Love,' which reached No. 28 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart and was its last chart hit of consequence.

Variety noted that the industry writer Bob Lefsetz championed Iris in a 2025 post, writing that the joke was that he was "anything but cool": his music was current and his look was not, maybe because he had reached his late thirties by the time he made it while his contemporaries had made it in their twenties. Lefsetz wrote that MCA had released only a greatest-hits set, and that Iris later worked as a mortgage broker.

Six decades on the circuit

Iris released records intermittently and kept touring, mainly around Pittsburgh and Cleveland, Vice reported. His solo catalog ran to eleven studio albums, three live albums and two EPs, with a 2016 single, 'Pittsburgh Made,' as the last release. Billboard listed the 2010 Christmas record 'Ah! Leluiah!' as his final studio album.

A TribLive review of the band's March 16, 2024 show praised his stamina, saying that people much younger would probably have trouble getting around the stage the way he did.

Where King Cool came from

A Toronto concert reviewer first called him the new king of cool. The Cruisers took it for their 1981 second album, 'King Cool,' and the nickname stayed with him for the rest of his career.

Vitale wrote that at his first full show with the band, in 2021, Iris turned and gave him a hug right before they went on stage. He described a man with an infectious smile and constant energy, someone it was easy to sit and laugh with. He ended the post by calling him King Cool.

Engler, the longtime regional promoter, told TribLive that Iris "became iconic in our area" and was "one of the very few talents who actually made it big out of Pittsburgh in the rock and roll business." He remembered a big cigar smoker and a bourbon lover who had fun over the years playing with the band.

Variety described his modest Billboard showing in that era as a poor measure of how beloved he was in Pennsylvania and the Midwest, where he was widely seen as being to Pittsburgh what Michael Stanley was to Cleveland.

What has not been announced

No cause of death had been announced at press time, Billboard said. Friends and family confirmed the death on social media, according to Vice.

The Oct. 9 letter ended with a line for the people who had filled those rooms: "It has been my great honor to make music for you."