Donnie Iris, Pittsburgh Rock Hero Behind 'The Rapper' and 'Ah! Leah!', Dies at 83

Donnie Iris, the singer who took the Jaggerz to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "The Rapper" in 1970 and later built a second career as Pittsburgh's most beloved rocker, died Monday at 83. He had fought bladder cancer for three years.

Iris worked until the very end. He played his final show on Sept. 28 at Citizens Live at the Wylie — seated in a chair, hours after a radiation treatment. "He sang like a bird that night," his longtime keyboardist and best friend, Mark Avsec, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "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."

What were his biggest hits?

Iris charted across three decades. "The Rapper," written and recorded with the Jaggerz, dealt with "rapping" with girls — the word predates the musical genre. A decade later, fronting Donnie Iris and the Cruisers, he reached No. 29 on the Hot 100 in 1980 with "Ah! Leah!," followed by two mid-level hits in 1981, "Love Is Like a Rock" and "My Girl."

Those chart positions undersold his standing at home. In Pennsylvania and the Midwest, he was widely seen as Pittsburgh's answer to what Michael Stanley was to Cleveland. "For my money, he was the most beloved Pittsburgh musician of all time," Joe Grushecky, leader of the Iron City Houserockers, told the Post-Gazette. "I don't know anyone who was loved more than Donnie. He just had that warmth about him, and it came through in his performance."

How did his career unfold?

Iris started in a high-school doo-wop group in the early 1960s, moved through rock 'n' roll and R&B cover bands, and co-founded the Jaggerz in 1964. The group signed to Gamble Records — the label of Philadelphia soul architects Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff — and released "Introducing the Jaggerz" in 1969.

In the late 1970s he joined Wild Cherry as a guitarist, after that band had already hit with "Play That Funky Music." There he met Avsec, who stayed with him through Donnie Iris and the Cruisers, formed with Marty Lee Hoenes, Albritton McClain and Kevin Valentine. The Cruisers released "Back on the Streets" (1980), "King Cool" (1981), "The High and the Mighty" (1982) and "Fortune 410" (1983) before MCA Records dropped them in 1984. They kept recording into the 2010s.

After losing the deal, Iris became a mortgage broker, owning SimCorp in Aliquippa. He told the Post-Gazette the fame helped: "It got me some business I normally wouldn't have," with customers who had grown up with his music or attended his annual birthday shows.

Why did his reputation revive?

In 2025, industry pundit Bob Lefsetz championed Iris in a widely read blog post, prompted by a video of him performing "Love Is Like a Rock" at 82. "What is truly stunning is when he starts picking that Fender. Like it's a high school in New Castle, Pennsylvania and it's another night in the sixties," Lefsetz wrote. "Donnie isn't showing off, he's just doing what he does, AT 82! It put a smile on my face, made me feel good not only about Donnie Iris, but rock and roll."

Lefsetz also noted the gap between Iris's talent and his commercial fate: "Turns out he became a mortgage broker… You'd be stunned so many of your heroes end up working straight jobs."

Avsec, Iris's partner for nearly 50 years, responded to the column with his own tribute: "One of the joys of my life is watching the crowd watch Donnie. I've never seen such JOY on people's faces… He still sings his butt off. Screams and everything. Donnie always tells me he's having the time of his life."

Former A&M promo executive Richard Pachter added in another response: "'Ah! Leah!' may be the most rock and roll video ever made. That rug! Those teeth! That skinny guy with the hairy chest! But despite all that, it's beyond great."

What does his death change? Avsec's account of those final Ohio and Pennsylvania shows — full houses, a singer in chemotherapy still screaming the choruses — suggests the regional tribute circuit Iris headlined for four decades will now have to carry his name without him.