Across western Pennsylvania, rock fans never needed more than a first name to know whose record was playing.
Donnie Iris, the singer known as King Cool who gave Pittsburgh “Ah! Leah!” and “Love Is Like a Rock,” died Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, at 83, after a three-year battle with bladder cancer. Rich Engler, a longtime concert promoter and friend, confirmed the death.
Iris had been off the stage only weeks. He announced his retirement from performing in an open letter posted to Facebook on Oct. 9, in which he called the September concert “a meaningful and fitting moment to share with all of you in my hometown.” “It has been my great honor to make music for you,” he said in a statement announcing the decision.
A Chair He Didn’t Like
Iris gave his final performance Sept. 28 at the grand opening of Citizens Live at The Wylie, Pittsburgh’s newest concert venue, in the city’s historic Hill District neighborhood. He sang sitting in a chair. That afternoon, he had radiation treatment.
Mark Avsec, Iris’ longtime keyboard player and best friend, described 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,” Avsec said.
A Poster With Bon Jovi
Engler started working with Iris in 1966, and by his own count he produced at least 20 or 30 shows with the singer over the decades. One show stood above the rest, Engler said, and he pulled out the poster from that night: Donnie Iris and the Cruisers headlining, with special guest Bon Jovi.
Engler said Iris sang with a volume and a range he could not come close to matching himself, and that crowds stayed with him to the last. The loss is permanent, Engler said, and so is the music — “his songs will live on forever.”
People who worked with him and called him a friend described no gap between the performer on stage and the man off it. To Pittsburgh area residents, he was simply “Donnie,” and no other name was needed.
From “The Rapper” to King Cool
Iris was born Dominic Ierace, an Ellwood City native. He first found fame with the Jaggerz and their hit “The Rapper,” which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970, then went solo with his band the Cruisers, a lineup of Erie, Pa., natives credited with fueling his rise. The Cruisers produced “Ah! Leah!,” a 1980 single that peaked at No. 29, followed by the 1981 chart entries “Love Is Like a Rock” and “My Girl.” Iris also performed with Wild Cherry, the band behind “Play That Funky Music.”
Nationally, he was best known for that string of hits in the 1970s and ’80s. Locally, he never left, remaining a fixture on the concert circuit in the western half of the state and eastern Ohio for six decades and a living legend in western Pennsylvania. In 2015 he was enshrined as a Pittsburgh Rock ’N Roll Legend, the city’s equivalent of the Rock ’N Roll Hall of Fame. In the Beaver Valley, he belonged to a regular golf group at Beaver Valley Golf Club in Patterson Heights, Pa.
An Anthem, Then a Diagnosis
To mark his 80th birthday, Iris sang the national anthem before the Pittsburgh Penguins’ game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023.
The cancer was discovered after a sold-out 80th birthday show, according to a statement announced in June 2023. “Shortly after Donnie Iris’s sold out 80th birthday show in March, it was discovered that he had cancer,” the statement said.
“Ah! Leah!” the Whole Drive Home
Joe Grushecky, leader of the Iron City Houserockers, said, “For my money, he was the most beloved Pittsburgh musician of all time.” He added: “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.”
Drummer Joe Vitale Jr. posted on Facebook, “Many of you may already know about this, but today my boss and friend Donnie Iris passed away at the age of 83.” He added: “After you meet him, you honestly just love him. You could just sit and talk with him, laugh with him. He was King Cool.”
Musician Shari Richards was among those paying tribute, calling him a credit to Pittsburgh music. Fans and radio stations across the region have been spinning his biggest hits since word of his death spread. Michael Caponi, who grew up on those songs, said he planned to play “Ah! Leah!” for the entire drive home as his own tribute.