{"id":314945,"date":"2026-10-27T01:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T01:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/314945\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T01:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T01:18:10","slug":"donnie-iris-pittsburgh-rock-legend-dies-at-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/314945\/","title":{"rendered":"Donnie Iris, Pittsburgh rock legend, dies at 83"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EthanPITTSBURGH \u2014<\/p>\n

Donnie Iris, a Pittsburgh rock legend, passed away Monday at the age of 83, according to friend and regional concert promoter Rich Engler.<\/p>\n

The Ellwood City native first came to fame with his band The Jaggerz, best known for their hit “The Rapper.” He then went on to have a successful solo career with his band The Cruisers, making hits such as “Ah! Leah!” and “Love is Like a Rock.”<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Iris announced his retirement from future performances after experiencing health issues.<\/a><\/p>\n

He gave his final performance at the grand opening of Citizens Live at The Wylie.<\/p>\n

In a statement announcing his retirement, he said, “Music has given me far more than I could ever put into words. From the earliest days to every chapter of my life, your support has been a constant source of joy and inspiration. Thank you for your loyalty, your energy, and your love through all the years. It has been my great honor to make music for you.”<\/p>\n

A cause of death has not been released.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Stay with Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 for updates.<\/p>\n

Download the WTAE app<\/a> to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters<\/a> to get breaking news in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Donnie Iris, a Pittsburgh rock legend, passed away Monday at the age of 83, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[900,17595,70794,124693,128470,128469,128471,124677,128473,7576,10086,48733,2647,11928,7865,73,75,74,128472,7174,10254],"class_list":["post-314945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-action-news","tag-band","tag-chapter","tag-constant-source","tag-death-of-donnie-iris","tag-donnie-iris-death","tag-donnie-iris-has-died","tag-donnie-iris","tag-future-performance","tag-grand-opening","tag-hit","tag-inspiration","tag-joy","tag-love","tag-music","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-rock-legend","tag-retirement","tag-wtae"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}