Seventeen days after telling western Pennsylvania he was stepping off the stage for good, the singer everyone there knew simply as Donnie is gone.
Donnie Iris, the singer known as King Cool, gave Pittsburgh “Ah! Leah!” and “Love Is Like a Rock.”
He died Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, at 83. He had been fighting bladder cancer for three years, though no official cause of death was announced. Rich Engler, a longtime concert promoter and friend, confirmed the death.
The singer announced his retirement from performing on Oct. 9 in an open letter posted to Facebook. “It has been my great honor to make music for you,” he said in a statement announcing the decision. In his retirement message he added, “I am deeply grateful to my daughters and my entire family, the musicians, crew members, promoters, venues and especially the fans who made this life possible.”
Citizens Live at The Wylie, Pittsburgh’s newest concert venue, opened Sept. 28 in the city’s historic Hill District neighborhood, and that grand opening hosted his final performance. In the Facebook letter, Iris called the September concert “a meaningful and fitting moment to share with all of you in my hometown.”
He Sang Like a Bird
Mark Avsec, Iris’ longtime keyboardist and best friend, said the singer performed that night seated in a chair, after undergoing radiation treatment earlier the same day. “He sang like a bird that night,” Avsec said.
Avsec added: “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.”
The Poster With Bon Jovi
Engler started working with Iris in 1966 and booked him for 60 years, producing at least 20 or 30 shows over the decades that followed, by his own count. One standout night survives on a poster he pulled out: Donnie Iris and the Cruisers headlining, with special guest Bon Jovi. Iris sang that night with a volume and range the promoter said he could not come close to matching himself.
Crowds, he added, stayed with the singer to the last. Engler said “his songs will live on forever.”
Locally, He Never Left
The Ellwood City native first came to fame with the Jaggerz and their hit “The Rapper.” A solo career followed, built with his band the Cruisers, a lineup that included Erie, Pa., natives who helped fuel his rise. He also performed with Wild Cherry, the band behind “Play That Funky Music.” Nationally, he was best known for a string of hits in the 1970s and ’80s.
Locally, he never left. Iris remained a fixture on the concert circuit for six decades across the western half of the state and into eastern Ohio, a living legend in western Pennsylvania. In 2015 he was inducted as a Pittsburgh Rock ‘N Roll Legend. In the Beaver Valley, he belonged to a regular golf group at Beaver Valley Golf Club in Patterson Heights, Pa. To area residents, he was simply “Donnie,” and no other name was needed.
He began receiving treatment for bladder cancer in 2023, the same year he turned 80. A roaring ovation greeted his 80th birthday on the video board at the Pittsburgh Penguins’ game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023.
Playing “Ah! Leah!” All the Way Home
Word of his death spread, and since then his biggest hits have been spinning on radio stations across the region. Fans have been playing them too. Musician Shari Richards was among those paying tribute, calling him a credit to Pittsburgh music. Michael Caponi, who grew up on those songs, said he planned to play “Ah! Leah!” for the entire drive home as his own tribute.
Those who worked with him and called him a friend said there was no gap between the performer on stage and the man off it.