Interview: Donnie Iris still steady as a Rock at 82

For some people, turning 65 is the time to retire, collect Social Security, use Medicare, and, perhaps, move to Florida

Singer Donnie Iris passed that milestone 17 years ago and he said he has no plans of slowing down. Iris, the voice behind such hits as “The Rapper,” “Ah Leah!” and “Love Is Like A Rock,” will be continuing to do what he loves best – playing live music – May 3 at the Bluestone ( 583 E Broad St. in downtown Columbus.)

Asked if he thought he’d still be playing rock and roll at 82, Iris let loose a throaty laugh.

“Hell no, man. No way,” Iris said in a telephone interview from Pittsburgh. “We just keep playing. As a group, we keep getting these gigs and we take them on because we are not ready to quit.

“It’s something I can’t explain, but it just seems to be in people's blood. The Rolling Stones (whose average age of their surviving members is 78) and Paul McCartney (82) are still fantastic. The age thing doesn't matter if you can still sing and perform. If you can do that and people still show up to hear you, there's nothing holding you back.”

And there’s nothing holding Iris back. Put him in front of a crowd, he takes on Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music” with a reckless abandon of performers half his age.

Iris is somewhat of a entertainment marvel. For a performer who makes his living with his voice, the Pittsburgh native doesn’t use any sort of vocal gymnastics or care regimes to keep his vocal cords robust. A cigar aficionado, you can find Iris hosting monthly gatherings at bars in Pittsburgh.

However, at 82, Iris has done a few things to keep his distinct vocals pristine.
“I don’t do any exercises or anything like that,” he said. “But the way we have our set list arranged, it helps me warm up for certain songs. Lately we've hired a guy who comes out and does a couple songs just to give me a break. It sure helps and the people seem to like it, so I'm all for it.”

Iris admits he’s just happy to be able to front a rock band after a cancer scare. Days after his 80th birthday, Iris was diagnosed with bladder cancer, underwent surgery and chemotherapy. He spent seven months recovering and was off the road for over a year before returning with a concert at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Events Center on March 16, 2024.

“It was devastating,” Iris said. “I went through a lot with that, but everything seems to be fine now. I hope and pray it stays that way.”

Iris, whose real name is Dominic Ierace, grew up in New Castle, Pa.  He was born into a musical family; his mother, Carrie Ierace, sang and played the piano while one uncle played saxophone and another played the drums. “My mom was probably my biggest influence,” Iris said. “She’s basically the woman who taught me how to sing.”

While enrolled at Slippery Rock State College, Iris got a first-class education in rock music. He formed a band, “Donnie and the Donnells,” and then later merged with another band, “Gary and the Jewel Tones,” to form the Jaggerz. The band found themselves playing gigs six nights a week and soon after Iris left college to go out on the road.

“My parents were fine with me quitting college. I remember my dad (Samuel) telling me, ‘It’s in your blood,’” he said.

The Jaggerz gave Iris his first taste of success. The group released the Iris-penned “The Rapper” on their second album, “We Went to Different Schools Together.” Thanks to strong air play in Pittsburgh, the song eventually hit number two on Billboard’s Top 100 on March 21, 1970.

Iris distinctly remembers the first time he heard one of his songs on the radio.

“I'm driving down the road and, all of a sudden, our song comes on and I'm like, ‘Oh my God, I can't believe this,’” Iris said. “It was surreal. I couldn't believe it was us on the radio.”

Iris left the band in 1976 and two years later, he joined Wild Cherry, a band hailing from Steubenville, Oh. Wild Cherry had already had a number one hit with “Play That Funky Music” in 1976. Iris only stayed with the band for two years, but during that time he befriended keyboardist Mark Avsec. The two went on to form Donnie Iris and the Cruisers in 1980.

 The pair went to compose some of Donnie Iris and the Cruisers’ biggest hits, including “Ah! Leah!” and “Love Is Like A Rock.” Avsec said most of the band’s songs would start when he would sit down at a piano and the two would work out a solid chord progression.

“I would point to the keys and sometimes say, ‘Our next song is in there. let’s pull it out,’” Avsec said.  “For us, the music comes first and then the melody suggests phonetics. The last thing we do is write a lyric suggested by that melody. At some point, personal experience comes into play – once you know what you are writing about.”

Sometimes, like on “Love Is Like A Rock” for example, songwriting is a team sport.

“Love Is Like A Rock” began when (drummer Kevin Valentine) made up a beat and then we made a manual loop of the tape and then stacked up those drums. Marty (Lee) then came up with the guitar lick. Then we wrote the lyrics.”  

Currently the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is now exhibiting the lyrics to “Ah! Leah!” as written in longhand by engineer Jerry Reed. Avsec stacked Iris’ vocals 60 times in the hook to create the massive chorus and Reed kept track of them.

“Jerry had a system where he knew where every line was by the tape marking so we could be more efficient,” Avsec said.

Avsec recalled he was taking a class on music composition when he started experimenting with reverse tonal order and transposition as a writing technique.

 “I had Donnie stack the vocals for the chorus and it sounded amazing to me,” he said. “Eventually Donnie said Leah was the name of a girl and I wrote a lyric about a girl that a guy is crazy about, but it’s always going to lead to heartache. We can all relate to that. I remember I finished the lyrics on the way to the studio when I was driving.  

“It was a magical night the night I recorded Donnie’s lead vocal. We got each other into an emotional state – I was standing on the producer’s chair in the control room when he let out that patented scream.”

The song peaked at 29th on Billboard’s Hot 100. However, the “magical” story doesn’t have a dream-like ending. A year after its release, a Detroit song writer filed a $2 million lawsuit against Iris and Avsec, claiming the chorus of the song was nearly identical to his song.

“The two songs sounded nothing alike and we won the trial (jury trial),” Avsec said. “I felt like I had done nothing wrong and though (we) won the trial, I lost all the Ah! Leah! money paying our lawyer.”

Disenchanted with the turn of events, Avsec enrolled at Cleveland State University’s College of Law and became an intellectual property lawyer. He has taught a “Law of the Music Industry” class at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law School for the last 25 years.

The Cruisers cut their teeth as an opener for many bands in the 1980s, sharing the bill with acts as diverse as Bob Seger, U2, Daryl Hall and John Oates, Nazareth, the Romantics, and Loverboy.

The twin bill of Ohio native Michael Stanley and the Resonators and Iris and the Cruisers once held the attendance record at Blossom Music Center, playing in front of 64,000 after three consecutive sold out concerts. Stanley then broke the record the following summer, performing in front of 74,404 people after four straight sold out shows.

Stanley died of lung cancer on March 5, 2021.

“We had the same manager and we did so many shows with him at Blossom and around Cleveland,” Iris said. “Michael was one of my favorite people, just a sweet human being.”

Iris is not sure where the road is leading him but he is going to continue to ride it until he can’t anymore. And the singer can’t wait to get to Columbus to share his music again.