Donnie Iris

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the MOB Website podcast. I guess today is one and only Donnie Iris. Donnie, you've been going through some health challenges. Tell us about that.

Yeah. Yeah, I two years ago I developed uh bladder cancer and uh and I had to I had to have the surgery to have the bladder removed. And that was like two years ago. But uh, everything's fine now. I've I seem to have beat it. There's uh. I mean, I obviously have some problems with no bladder, but everything seems fine now. The doctor told me I'm in the clear. I have to go back every three or four weeks for maintenance, but other than that, everything's cool. Now.

How'd you discover you had it?

Well, I thought I was having a like a kidney stone or something, and uh drove myself to the hospital and uh, it wasn't. It wasn't a kidney stone at all. It was my bladder. So I didn't. I didn't quite like the hospital I was in, so I got transferred to what's called Hillman Hillman Cancer Center in in Pittsburgh, and uh and there there are uh they're very good doctors and uh they they they took care of me real.

Well, so you have the surgery. Do you have like radiation or chemo after that?

Yeah? I had what's called chemo therapy and immunotherapy. And I remember the doctor calling me and telling me they came out with this immunotherapy they had the fdd A had just the FDA had just approved it, and he was all excited about it and thought it would be it would be a great thing to do. So we did it, and sure enough it worked. It worked very well.

Okay. So how long ago did you discovery the problem?

Two years, I believe, okay.

And when's the last time you've had treatment.

I've had maintenance treatment within the last week or two.

Okay. And is this something that's been very hard you know, where you felt shitty or it's like, hey, you just go through the immunitherapy.

Yeah. No, No, I didn't get sick at all. I mean a lot of people have told me they've been sick after chemo, but I never had any problems with sickness.

So after you went through this crisis house, it affected your outlook on life?

Oh uh, I don't know. I just I just thought I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do the best I can. I'll just push on. If I can still do shows, I'll still do shows. And uh and sure enough. I mean, we've been able to do shows and there hasn't been any problems other than I have to take a couple of pain pills before I go on stage. But other than that, I'm fine.

Okay, prior to this medical incident, how many shows were you doing a year?

Oh well, that's a good question. I don't even remember. Probably, uh, prior to the incident, I'd say i'd say half a dozen.

Okay, So you're doing it for fun as opposed to money.

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, We're definitely doing it for fun. But that they're the crowds are there, the venues are are generally sold out. So we're we're doing well with it, I mean when we're loving it. And we got a new lineup. Now we got uh Jovitally Junior and Jovitally Senior playing drums with us. Now Jovially, let's yeah, yeah.

Let's hold on for a second. Jovially drummer. Long history with James Gang. Yeah, you're from Pittsburgh. Certainly James Gang started in Cleveland. How do you know Jovitally.

Uh. Well, his son, Junior uh is playing with us now. So I mean Kevin, our original drummer, is no longer with us, but uh, Jovi Tally Junior was playing with us, and.

We I mean, how do you find Jovially Jr?

Well, he uh. For for some reason, he was the guy that we were going to replace Kevin with our original drummer, just by auditioning. So he comes, man, he does a good job, and he's still doing a good job. And then he told us about his dad, and of course we were like, oh, yeah, yeah, let's let's get to know him. And somehow he started playing with us.

And where do both of them, the Senior and Junior live right now?

I think they're both in the Cleveland area.

Okay, so you live exactly where.

I live in a place called Coreopolis, Pennsylvania, which is a suburb of Pittsburgh.

So how far is that from Cleveland.

About an hour and a half.

So you were growing up, would it be a normal thing to say, Oh, the band's playing in Cleveland, We're going to go to Cleveland, or you just stay around Pittsburgh.

No, it it was. We played quite a few gigs in Cleveland. Our original manager, Mike Belkan was our original manager, and he also managed the Michael Stanley Band, and so we did a lot of gigs together. We did, oh, the Richfield Coliseum and a bunch of different places with with Michael. It was kind of, you know, kind of a two band situation for most of the Cleveland shows.

Okay, let's go back to the present. So you know, in the old days, you'd have an agent. An agent would solicit offers. Now that you're doing a handful of gigs, where do the gigs come from?

Oh? Man, I don't know. Our Our manager now is Michael Michael Belkan, who is Mike Belkin's son, and he he just gets all these great gigs for us. I think he does a great job. And I don't I don't know how he solicits these jobs, but he he does a great job at it. We're playing, Uh, we don't go any further than Columbus West or Johnstown to the east. So yeah, he's keeping us busy with some really nice shows.

Okay, any recordings in the future.

We haven't really thought about it that much. We're kind of into this live gig thing and and uh and not put putting too many too much pressure on ourselves for trying to come up with something new. So uh no, we're not really concentrating on it.

So what's it like being on stage eight decades later? I mean, you know you started early, you know, is it the same hit from the audience to get stage fright? What's it like?

Yeah, it's it's it's it's a little bit. Uh, I don't know. I don't get stage fright, but I go up there, the audience is right into it. They're they're ready to go right off the bat. So I feel very comfortable up there. And uh and the shows are usually just just a it's a love fest with all these people. They just we're just enjoying each other's company.

Really, So, are you just a normally energetic guy or do you feed off the feedback of the audience.

Yeah, I am definitely a guy who feeds off the audience, because usually during the day. I'm a pretty lazy guy. I don't do a whole lot other other than sit in my front porch and smoke cigars and and that's my hobby. Right now, I was smoking cigars.

Okay, So let's go back to the beginning. You grow up in the Pittsburgh area. How long had your family been in that area?

Well, they were here all their lives. Really. I was born in a town called Newcastle, Pennsylvania, which was right outside of my hometown of Elwood City, Pennsylvania. And that's where I grew up in Elwood In. I was born in nineteen forty three, So I grew up there, you know, as a kid through high school. And yeah, that's about it. Then I want to have to call it.

Okay, So were your parents or your parents parents born in the Old Country?

My parents' parents were born in the Old Country? Yes, yes, And.

How did they end up in Pittsburgh.

That's a good question. I have no idea. No, they came over on the boat just like everybody else did, and just settled in Elwood City. How they settled there, I have no idea.

And what did everybody do for a living?

My dad was a steel worker, my grandfather, Well, when I knew him, he was retired. Both my grandparents were retired. Both sets of parents were grandparents were retired. So I just I didn't know them all that well because they passed on as I became like a young teenager.

So what did your father say about working in the steel mills.

He didn't stay in the steel mill all that long. He had quit after a while and started working for a company called National Distillers who made whiskey and Old Granddad and PM and all these whiskey brands. That's what he decided to do. So he became an on the road salesperson for these for this company, and that's what he decided to do.

The kind who stays overnight in a different town or did it always come home at night?

Oh you know what, I don't even remember. It could have been a little bit of both. But I don't really remember at that time. Let's see, I would have been oh she, I don't know, by seventeen something like that. I don't know, something like that. I don't remember. So how many kids in the family, Me and my sister, I have a sister, a younger sister, how much younger. She's five years younger.

And what was her life about.

Oh, she was a caretaker. She was a good caretaker. Her husband developed some problems and she mainly takes care of him and to me to a certain extent.

So you're growing up in Pittsburgh. Your father's first work in the steel mill, then he's liquor salesman. How about your mother and your father and mother's relationship.

Well, my mother was actually the one who taught me how to sing. I was very young, maybe five six seven, I don't know, but she would, uh, she would encourage me to sing. We had a piano in the basement where she would take me downstairs and and uh and and show me what to do and how to sing and uh to get some vibrallo in my voice and that kind of thing. But she was the one who actually, uh encouraged me to sing.

Do you know why?

I think? Uh, I think that's just the way she was. She was musically. She played church, she played the organ or piano in church.

Uh.

So, I mean she was just drawn to that type of thing.

Uh.

My dad, on the other hand, was more like a uh, just a normal guy. You know. We wanted, I guess wanted me to play baseball and so off, which I did. And I wanted to play baseball rather than go practice singing. I guarantee you that, and and so I had a little bit of both.

So did you like singing? And did you sing outside the house?

I did, but I think I was about nine or ten when I did that. I started singing at weddings and different events in Ellwood. I remember as a kid, like a nine year old or ten year old kid who did a had to travel to Philadelphia and perform on what was the name of that show? I can't remember, Paul Weitman or I forget who it was. I remember going up there to do that, and I came in second place, and I want to I won a Calvinator refrigerator.

I actually had a Calvenator refrigerator, did you Yes, it was cheap. That's why we bought it one of my first apartments. But let's go back. I mean, you're not singing in the basement and all of a sudden you're on TV. I mean, how does this happen that you get on TV? Well, I don't know.

I used to sing on the radio actually before that.

How do you get on the radio?

I don't know. My mother somehow arranged it for me to get on the some radio show in beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. I sang there like every weekend or something for I don't know how many weeks before heading to Philadelphia to do that Paul Whiteman show. But I mean, I guess, I guess I was pretty good or something. So I kept calling me back. I kept going back to sing.

And what were singing? Oh?

Man, I have no idea. I can't remember what I was singing. Probably old I don't know, Bennett or Sinatra or some some tunes like that.

Did you like doing it or would your mother, being a stage mother, making you do it?

I suppose I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the attention, the uh, you know, the uh, the thrill of it. But uh, I was young. I mean I didn't know, you know what what what what was going to transpire after all this, But yeah, I just I just went along with it and uh and I had fun doing it. Yeah.

So did you go to regular public school or religious school?

We went. I went to public school.

So if I was in school with you, say, oh, yeah, you know that's the guy who sings. Were you famous as the guy who sang school.

Let me see, I don't remember being famous in school, but yeah, I mean I was young. I don't remember if kids would come up to me or not. But the only thing I remember really after singing on the radio and stuff, was you know, going into going into high school and you know, just becoming whoever I was going to be at that time.

So would you become?

Yeah, I became a pretty darn good pool player because we used to play pool after school every day down at the place half a block from my high school. We'd go down there and just shoot pool after school, and just I became pretty good at it. Now I'm not quite as good, but I was pretty damn good back then.

How often do you play now? Oh?

I still play. There's a club around here in Cranberry that a Cranberry township that I go to, the where they have fool tables there and everything. So every once in a while we'll go up there and we'll sit around play pool.

Okay, were you a good student? Were you a bad student? Were popular? Were you unpopular?

I was. I was kind of a nerd. I didn't I don't think I was all that popular. I was kind of I got good grades, in high school, I got uh you know, Uh, I did graduate with honors, So I mean I just pretty much concentrated on school pretty much. Wasn't real Uh that was real popular.

So if I talked to the high school, if I talk to you, what would you have said you wanted to be and do with your life?

Oh man? When I was in high school, yeah, h see at that time, I really didn't know. I mean, the plan was for me to go to college and uh, and that's what happened. Uh. You know, I went to UH. I went to Slippery Rock University for about two years and then I got I got a call from a group called the Jaggers to uh to hook up with them. Because when I was in college, I had a band, a three piece band that we'd play in fraternity parties

Okay, you're born in nineteen forty three. Was there always a television in your house or do you remember getting television?

Yeah? Yeah, there was always a TV in my house. Me and my dad used to Those were the days of the rabbit ears and stuff like that, where he just tried to put some aluminum foil on it and try to get it to work. But we had a lot of fun doing that. My dad and I we put up a big pole antenna in the backyard because there was a hospital behind us, way up high and we couldn't get the signal high enough to get you know, to get a good reception. But we figured it out. We did all right.

Then what were you watching on TV?

Oh man? Stuff like Howdy dooty, uh shit? What else? I can't even remember we did. That's the one that comes to my mind right off the bat.

Yeah, I certainly watched that too. Okay, you're singing, your mother plays the keyboard. At what point do you start listening to popular music and listening to the radio.

Oh, I guess I started listening to the radio a lot when the Beatles.

Okay, but by time the Beatles hit you're already in your twenties.

Okay, well let's see, Yeah I was. I was.

You're right, so you're conscious at the you know, they say it's a big debate what the first rock and roll record is is? You know, I turned Rocket eighty eight? Is it rock around the Clock? Were you paying attention to that stuff at that time?

No? Not really, the only thing I've paid attention to. I mean, I grew up. I liked Buddy Hawley. I liked the stuff he was doing. I thought he was really good. Know I I was around when when when they they would have that plane crash when they uh, you know, when they died. But I remember listening to Richie Vallens and uh and the Big Bopper and all that stuff. So I have some influences there too.

And what about Elvis Elvis?

I really I love the early on Elvis when he was just when he was just going for it with Don't Be Cruel and the hound Dog and all that stuff. Uh, that's the Elvis. I really liked the fact I went to see his place in Memphis, uh maybe six seven years back, took a trip down there and went and checked it out, and it was it was it was fun.

No, I've been there too. I'm not the biggest Elvis fan, but it's just funny that it's not that big a place. Now he's got the three Sony trindotrons to watch the three networks in the jungle room. It's got an interesting feel. So yeah, after Elvis hits, how about Little Richard, Carl Perkins, all that stuff.

Oh yeah, Little Richard I admired. I admired him a lot. I thought he was great. Uh. Carl Perkins I didn't pay too much attention to. I don't know why, but I just didn't. But yeah, Little Richard was uh, I mean he was, he was great. I think Paul McCartney might have listened to him a little bit too. A lot of the things that he does in that that kind of raspy voice sounds a lot like Little.

Richard, Long Tall, Sally, et cetera. Okay, yeah, then music starts to change to these two dimensional acts like Bobby Ride Dell and Fabian. How did you feel about the music then?

Actually I knew Bobby right Dell. He My manager at the time was Joe Rock. Do you remember Joe Rock?

I don't.

He was the guy that man is and wrote for the Skyliners. Very talented guy. He wrote since I Don't have you and this I Swear and all these great songs for the Skyliners. But I lost my train of thought. Where were we going with this?

I can't Bobby ry Dell you were talking about?

Oh yeah, yeah. So anyway, Joe knew Bobby rid Dell and he brought him to my house one time. We got to meet Bobby rid Dell and we actually ended up producing a record or two for him and James Darren the same way we did. We did a couple of records for him as producers because at the time the Jaggers were hot. We had like a Rapper, which was a was a big hit back in the seventies.

But we'll get back to the rapper point. Do you pick up a guitar or an instrument started playing?

I think I was in eleventh grade when my dad bought me a guitar and I started playing it, but it didn't last very long. It went behind the college because it was hurting my fingers. So I didn't pick up a guitar really until I was maybe my second year of college. Started practicing. Okay, you know you had a piano in the basement. Do you ever play the piano. Uh, just a little bit, not anything to speak of.

No, okay, your father boy guitar, acoustic guitar or electric guitar.

Yeah, it was acoustic.

So now you're a sophomore in college. What is the inspiration to pick up the guitar again?

Uh? I think around my second year, I was getting a little bored with being in college. I started to get the inkling that I went to be Uh, I want to be into music. Uh, that's probably why I rather, I got the guitar and started practicing again and uh, you know, honing, honing my chops, so to speak. And like I said, playing with a couple of early on college bands.

Okay, a lot happened. If you're playing on an acoustic guitar. It's a big step to get an electric guitar, get an amp, well, form a band. It doesn't happen instantly. No, I might have during that time.

I might have. I might have gotten an electric guitar at the time. I probably did. I don't really remember, but I did have an electric and I had an amp, and we were we were ready to go. We were we were ready to get out and play.

So you know that was an error where there were bands at every corner. If you get gigs, were there that many gigs? Were you just better than the other acts?

Well, I don't know what it was, but we were. We had a nine times a week gig at a place called Geneva on the Lake, Ohio. We used to play seven nights a week and twice on Sunday for two jam sessions. So we were definitely owning our skills at that time. And we were vocalists too. We all sang, we all you know, we all did everything. So and it went on like that for maybe two or three summers something like that, and we just had a blast.

Okay, wait a second. Not only were you playing at Geneva at the Lake, were you living there?

Yes?

Yes, Oh there's got to be some stories there.

What kind of stories you're looking for here?

Well, mistiff, drugs and alcohol?

Sex. Well, I'll be honest with you, at that time, there was no drugs or alcohol. Well, there was alcohol, but no drugs. I mean, we were we were pretty uh we were pretty virgin y virgins at that time. But but yeah, we drank, but mainly it was it was playing in uh and sex basically.

Well, you must have been the big stars there because you were the band.

Well, yeah, I mean it was Geneva on the lake. It was. There was a couple other places to play, but the places we played that called the Cove and the Sunken Bar, were the two main places up there, and that's that's where we that's where we were playing. We used to pit one against the other. We'd play one one joint one year and another joint the other year, and then playing against each other to try to get

And what music were you playing?

Oh? Man, we were doing we were doing what was popular were We were a good cover band. We did a bunch of covers from whatever was popular at the time.

Okay, so you're hit in the sixties and one hand you got Perry Como. On the other you have four Seasons in the Beach Boys. Was that music that appealed to you?

Uh, not as much as other music. I like the Beach Boys. I lest certain songs they did. Who else did you mention four seasons? Four Seasons? I wasn't a real, real big fan of the couple. They had a couple of really nice songs though. And who's the other one.

Well, the Harry Como. I don't expect you're a big fan.

Perry Como, man, he was. Uh. I used to love his TV show man. Do you watch that.

With those sweaters?

Yeah? I love Terry Como didn't live didn't live that far from me either.

So how did you first hear the Beatles?

I remember driving, uh for a while there, I commuted back and forth to college, and I remember hearing them on the radio.

What were your initial thoughts?

I thought this was great, this is this is great. They sound great. I love it. I loved it.

And how did that affect your career?

Oh? Man? We uh we we did so many different Beatles songs throughout my throughout my history. We did a ton of them. Uh, it's just uh. And then the Stones, I listened to the Stones. We did a lot of the Stones tunes. But the British invasion was awesome, man, it was awesome.

So what year, if you can remember, do you get asked to join the Jaggers.

Oh, let's see, that would have been like sixty eight, sixty nine, maybe.

Sixty eight you're twenty five or twenty six years old, you orderly went to college in that intervening time. Were you living as a musician or did you have a street job? What were you doing what time when subsequent to dropping out of college before joining the Jaggers.

Yeah, well then I went right out of college and joined the Jaggers. That's what. We hired a guy to book us. So we were playing clubs all throughout the Midwest, like six nights a week, staying in one hope, staying in one room for for I don't know how long. We played like that and learned how and basically learned how to play.

Okay, what was the status of the Jaggers.

When you joined, Well, they actually were called Gary and the Jewel Tones. And when I don't know, either they kicked him out of the band or he left the band. I don't know what happened. But we renamed the band the Jaggers. We you know, tried to come up with a name, and we came up with that name because here in western Pennsylvania, you walk into the woods and you get all these jagger bushes all over your pant legs,

And how did it go from Jaggers with an ass to Jaggers with.

A z oh? I don't know. It just seemed cooler at the time when we did I don't know when we did it, but it's just it seemed cooler.

So when you joined the band, what was your role in the band?

I was one of three singers. I mean all of us sang, so yeah, I did certain songs, the other guy did certain songs, so on and so forth.

And at what point did you start playing original material and at what point did you start recording that material.

We started doing originals like in sixty nine early sixty nine, and we wrote some songs. We went up to our manager Joe Rock hooked us up with Gamble and Huff to go up there to record some songs, which we did. And uh, I mean somehow he knew these guys and was able to get us in because Gamble and Huff was they were they were big time, big time dudes, right and uh and and we were like we were like a white eyed, a blue eyed soul band. At the time. Uh, except for the Rapper, the song of

Okay, you're in the Jaggers. You go to Gamble and Huff. You must have thought, man, I made it.

Yeah, I mean it felt great. I mean we were gonna go up and uh and we did. We we just we recorded and had a great time. And before I knew it, the Rapper had come out and I remember hearing it on the radio and I remember, you know, everything was like a whirlwind at that time because we went out and did the We did American Bandstand. We did these shows with like people I used to watch on TV, these dancers on American Bandstand. I was like, Wow,

So how did you write the Rapper?

Believe it or not. It was the middle of the night. I woke up with the with the song in my head. It was a rapper I had it all planned out. I brought it into the band and we put it together and that was it. That's how it happened.

Okay. Prior to the Rapper, had you written a lot of songs?

No? No, not a lot. No, I mean early on, I did some things that were just like I mean, way early when I was like sixteen or so. But but yeah, nothing serious.

Okay, the rapper in the middle of the night. How similar was that to the record that came out?

Uh? Similar in what way? What do you mean?

Well, the melody, the sound did it sound?

Yeah, yeah, it did it did? It came out pretty much the way I had it planned. When I brought it into the band, they understood and they just they just played it. They played the right parts. They did everything that was in my head.

Okay at the time, forget what rap means today. That was a hip turn to rap. Let's sit down and wrap. So how did you come up with the term the rapper for the song?

Well, the rapper it was a different kind of rapper. It was a rapper that went into a bar at night and started rapping the chicks as a pickup line. That's what I meant by the Rapper, which is totally totally different.

Okay, you go to Philadelphia to record with Gamble and Huff, who records the Rapper? They record it?

Uh no, no, I take that back. We were in we were at a place called Century Sound Studios in New York. That's where we did the Rapper And that would have been late sixty nine and the song came out in early seventy.

And who produced the record.

We did? We did with a friend of Joe Rock's what was his name? I can't remember his name anyway, we pretty much produced it ourselves.

And when it was done, did you believe it was going to be a hit?

I didn't know. I had no idea. But it was just one of those things. Just one of those things, Bob. It's one of those things.

I mean, did you don't know? Did you play it for the record company and they say, wait a second, this is the one.

Yeah, we did. We did. We got turned down by five or six of them, until Neil Bogart said, Okay, we'll take it, we'll give it a shot. So he gave it a shot and the next thing we know, we're going to American Bandstand and stuff.

You know, Well, Neil Bogra legendary, you know, in the Bubblegum era, then Casablanca Records. He ultimately dot answer at a young age, what was your experience with Neil Bogart? Oh?

He was he was cool man. Well, like I said, he was cool because he gave us a chance. I mean, you get turned down by all these people, you start getting like, what the hell? So I mean, yeah, I enjoyed. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed meeting them, and thank goodness, he gave us a break.

So what was it? I mean, the Rapper went to number two? I mean, the Rappers one of those songs that you were lyve you could never forget it. What's it like having, you know what, a gigantic hit?

I don't know, man, that just just happens. You just don't know. It's just it's something. There's just something there. I don't know what it is. It's just it just happens. I mean, and we you know, and we hope that that happens every time, but it doesn't. It's just just it's coincidental. It's lucky, it's it's everything. It's the stars and all that shit.

Okay, now the record's a hit what's your life like once the record is a.

Hit, Like I said, we're we're jet setting all over the place, you know, going here and there and everywhere. Uh to uh to back the song up, to get to get some exposure as people, as musicians whatever.

Rapper is a gigantic kit. See any money.

We did, we did. We saw money. In fact, we uh as a group, we all went down to this this auto dealership in beaver Falls and we all leased seven Lincoln Continentals, the big boats with the real long front end. They were. They were gorgeous, gorgeous cars. So, I mean the money was rolling in and we were able to spend it.

Okay, you wrote the rapper who owned the publishing on the wrapper?

I think we split publishing with the record company. I'm pretty sure that's how it worked. We had our share of the publishing, they had their share of the publishing.

Who owns it today?

Good question. I don't know.

Well, let's put it a different way. Do you get paid on it?

Yeah? Yeah, on the wrapper?

Yeah?

Yeah usually BMI they send me a check every like every quarter. Yeah.

So's the money any good?

Yeah? I mean it's it's not anything spectacular, but it's a nice little check, a little surprise, little mail money every once in a while, never hurt. So yeah, it's nice.

Okay, so you have this gigantic kid. Then what happens for the.

Well, basically what happened is we pretty much had our run. There was not any tension or anything, but just just uneasiness in the band. People wanted to do other things. One of the guys in the band got asked to join the Skyliners, so he went with them for a while. What I did was I left. I left and came into the studio, the studio that we're sitting at right now. I don't know what year that would have been, do you do you know that the year that we recorded here,

I didn't.

He was a Christian singer. We did, like I don't know how many duo shows he and I sang together for many years, just as like a side gig. We did this and that here and there. In fact, we did we did shows up my dad's tavern. After my dad no wait, no, wait a minute, after my dad quit selling whiskey, he and his partner, he and a guy friend of h is hooked up and started a place called Loose Tavern, so which he spent a lot of time. Man, And this is right around the time

So how hard was it to quit the Daggers?

Well, like I said, we pretty much we pretty much had had it. I mean we you know, when it's over, it's over. And when I came into the studio here The funny thing was a group called Wild Cherry came in and they were going to record here. So the Leafs. The keyboard player in the band, Mark avsek, He and I kind of hit it off. We were like, okay, you know, whenever this is over, let's maybe get together and you know, maybe write some songs or do this

Okay, wait, you're in the studio, you see yourself as a behind the scenes guy. How do you end up going on the road with Wild Cherry.

Well, well, here's what he did. One of the guys in the band was leaving, so Bobby Parsi, who was the leader of the band at the time, asked me to join him and go on the road with him. So I said, yeah, oh yeah, let's go. So yeah, I spent I don't know, a year, year and a half, maybe two years with Wild Cherry. This was after they had this play that fucking music quite so yeah. I toured with them for a while and that was like heaven.

Okay, at what point in this scenario do you get married? Oh?

I was married in I think sixty eight. I think I got married in sixty eight, yeah, or sixty nine.

How many times you been married?

Once? Just once?

And did you get to where's you're still with your wife?

No, we're still we're we're still separated.

How long have you been separated?

Separated? Probably thirty years or so something like that.

Let's stay there for a second. I lived that life, did you? Yes? Unfortunately, How did you ultimately decide to get separated?

Oh? That that that was just that was just going to happen. I mean we were separated physically, so you know, so that becomes that becomes the thing. You're physically separated for so long you're separated, So that's that's what we were.

So who was this woman you married?

Her name was Linda.

And Rod you meet her? Yeah?

Yeah, oh man, I met her at a club that we played in uh in beaver Falls, would called the Club Natural, And we played there like six nights a week, every night, and she would come in there and I noticed her, and that's how it happened.

But who wanted to get married? Who are you?

Oh man? I guess we both did. We uh yeah, we decided to get married, and we did and had two wonderful daughters. And now I have five great grandkids, not great ganches, but grandkids, and I'm loving it.

Okay, But you're a musician and you're the breadwinner. What does she say about your career moves? Leaving the Jaggers, going to work in the studio, going on the road with Wild Cherry? Was she cool with it? Did she want you to quit? Get a regular job? What'd you say? Oh?

No, no, no, no, she was cool with it. She uh you know, everything every move I made, she was, she was there, she was, she was into it. You know, you need to do what you gotta do. I mean, you don't hear very much of that, but it's true.

And then, of course the obvious question is why have you never gotten divorced? Oh?

I don't know, never found it, never found any use in it, really, I mean, why.

Well, has she found someone new? If you found someone.

New, Yeah, she's she's she found somebody. I found someone and everybody. Everybody's happy. We still get along great. Yeah.

And is she off the payroll or you still supporting her?

Well? I do what I can for her. Put it that way.

Yeah, okay, So you go on the road with Wild Cherry. How does that end?

M Well, that is at the point where Mark av second and I start this new songwriting team and start Donnie Iris and the cruisers.

Stop for one second when you stop being Dominic Arachi and become Donnie Iris.

Oh that was long before. That was way before nobody could ever pronounce my last name, and it was just the right thing to do. I just change because basically, although my name wasn't Dominic, my mother always called me down neat Donnie. She didn't like Donny, she liked Donnie. So my first name was Donnie. My last name is Jiachi. So I had to change that because nobody was ever going to get that right. I changed it to the

So you got this songwriting partnership with Mark Abset. Yeah, and take us forward from there.

All right, Well, we decided to get together and write some songs. So we get down in my basement and beaver Falls at my house in beaver Falls, and and we start there was I had a piano in my basement and and we start clinking around, start writing tunes, and before you know it, we had I don't know, six or seven songs ready to go for whatever, and uh went into the studio and uh and we recorded back on the streets. The first album was had Leah, Agnes,

Wait, wait, let's go back. You're recording the record at the time. Agnes is a date. There was somebody on some sitcom, some woman that was always blowing the whistle called Agnes. How do you come up with the name Agnes?

Funny thing? Agnes rhymes with everything, right, it rhymes with everything, gladness, sadness. You know. There's that's why we that's why we use that name. That's exactly why we use the name.

Okay, tell me about the creation of Aliah.

All right, this is a story. So, Leah was a woman I knew who was dating the drummer in our band, and uh, I just thought she was beautiful. It's just gorgeous. So but I didn't know her. I just knew her from a distance. And later on in life, I have to go forward here because tell you the end of the story. I go, I get into somehow, I get into mortgage banking, all right, bear with me here. I get into mortgage banking and I start doing business with

So how did you write the song?

Uh? The song went through several phases. Really, it went through a an anti war idea. Uh, it went through a I forget. There might have been one more, one more thing, but it ended up as the we we had that. We had the vocal course in the background in our heads, the ah Leah. It was like a chant. It was like a Gregorian chant. And and we looked at it other and we said, Hey, that's that happens to be a name. It happens to be the name Leah. So let's let's go with a girl. Let's go with that.

How did you stock the vocals? I mean that record has a unique sound.

Yeah, we we did. The we did had a lot of stacking at the place, just just for the effect. Really, the we layered one on top of the other for I don't know how many how many tracks there were. Jerry, the original engineer here, would remember, and Mark Mark probably remembers, but I don't have any idea how many times I did that. But uh, but it had a certain sound to it. It had a chewiness to it. It had it had this jump out of the radio at you

So what happens? First, do you finish the album and look for a record deal or you cut Aliyah look for a record deal.

We have the album finished, so we give it to uh Belkan Maduri in Cleveland and to uh and their their uh their staff, the people they work with to get records promoted and so on and so forth, and uh uh they get it on the radio. Uh and these radio stations are adding it like uh w b z Z, I think it's bezz in Boston, Saint Louis, Dallas, all these all these radio stations are adding the record.

Okay, let's go back. You cut the record, you give it to your managers. What do they do about getting a record deal?

Well, they after they had done what they did, they figured, okay, it's time to make a deal. They knew people in at MCA, so they sell the record to MCA, and so now we have a large company behind it that can do to do more for the band. So yeah, they they sold the masters to them.

Okay, but the record said Carousel Records. What was up with that?

Yeah, it was an offshoot of MCA. It was managed by a guy of the name of Rick. Oh what was his last name, Rick? I can't remember, Rick Frio, Rick Frio, Yeah it was. It was his his deal with mc A.

Okay, could you believe you had another hit?

No? No, it's like ten years later is another one coming? So no, I you know, that's what you hope for, but you don't really expect it. It's just like I say that, that stuff just happens. It's just he hit the radio and before I knew it, it was happening all over again.

Okay, and do you immediately go on the road.

No, we don't. We Uh. What we do is we start hearing. We start hearing a bunch of clamoring to put the band together. So so first of all, I put I put me, and Mark put the band together. We just I remember going to a local place here in New Brighton and hearing some some dude play from Erie, Pennsylvania. Who well, I said, yeah, this this guy could do it. So his name is Marty Lee. He's my guitar player to this day. He came and joined the band. And

Some people have been in the business for a long time and they're friends with all these people. Are you the type of person you know who's friends with these people? You say, no, I'm a guy from outside Pittsburgh. I've met these people. I'm in my own world.

Well I met you know. I think one of the best tours we did was was with Loverboy, because I got to meet these guys and we kind of had fun together. I mean, Mike, Mike know and I have become friends. Every once in a while run into them because we're doing a recent show somewhere. But yeah, we

Okay, when you're an opening act for some of these stars, is the audience paying attention? Are you playing through people talking? What's it like?

Yeah? It varies. The Loverboy tour was just great. They they they were into it no matter what. But when we first went out, we opened for Nazareth in Saint Louis, and you know, Nazareth. I looked out into the audience and I saw a sea of I don't know, camouflage, I don't know what. It was, just like, oh, this

Okay, So how much were you working. It sounds like you're working a lot.

Yeah, yeah, we were. We did. It's been it was such a whirlwind. I think we were going from one gig to another. I think we had a tour bus and all that stuff we were going. I don't know where we went after that, but I mean we were working we were definitely working.

And now it's the MTV era and there's a video. Yeah, yeah, will tell us about that, all right, which one do you want?

Which one?

Were talking about it from the very beginning.

Aliah oh okay u Aliah somehow gets on MTV and Agnes somehow gets on MTV uh as recordings and we're like, you know, we're on MTV, man, we're on MTV and uh but then they added they added uh uh Leah the live version from uh from where we were playing in Cleveland. But yeah, I mean it was great stuff, great stuff.

Okay, are you now recognized because you're on MTV?

Uh yeah, yeah, now now and then now and then I am.

What about in the height in the eighties.

Yes, I remember going to a place called Kennywood Park here in here in Pittsburgh. It's a big amusement park. And I was there and people were coming over to me, man, like I was there with my daughters, my wife and my daughters getting trying to get them on rides and stuff. People are coming over and get my autograph and all this stuff. I'm thinking, Wow, what's going on? Man? They had recognized me?

Yep, Okay, why was it called the Cruisers.

Well, uh, originally I wanted to call ourselves the Turnpike Cruisers because it seemed like I was always going back and forth on the Turnpike, you know, to to Mark's house, to the studio here or there whatever. But after we thought about, we thought, oh, let's just change it to the cruisers. Cruisers would be better.

And was it always going to be Donnie Iris and the Cruisers or was it the Cruisers and stuff? Was always going to be Donnie Iris and the Cruisers?

It was, Yeah, it was always going to be Donnie Iris. I mean I was doing all the h not all of I mean, Mark did so many vocals with me, but usually uh, you know, the vocals were going to be basic my concern, and we just that's that's what we did.

Okay, at some point you have to make another record. How does that happen?

We decide to. We decided to come back here to this studio and we write some songs again. Some of them were some of them were written ahead of time, some of them were done in the studio as as jam sessions, and but we won this time. We wanted to, We wanted to have see. We mixed the first album Everything Right Here and the follow up album, King Cool Album. We wanted to have it mixed where the heck you are?

So. Tell me about the writing of Sweet Merrill Lee and was there in the back of your mind how do we follow up Alia?

Well, uh, I got to give most of the credit for something like this to Mark. I mean Mark comes up with lyrics like he's waking up in the morning, you know, he's just like uh so he he put all the lyrics together, went into the studio said here you go. I went in started singing basically that's it.

So what was the experience after the second record as opposed to the first?

This experience after thee in.

Terms of how did it feel, Alia was the biggest solo hit you ever had. So now you're following it up with King Cool. You're having success, But do you feel like you're losing momentum, maintaining momentum, gaining momentum? Oh?

Oh, I thought we were pretty much maintaining what we had with King Kol because Love Is Like a Rock was fairly pop. There was a couple of other tunes on there that that we still do live that that people remember. I mean they were played enough to where they were recognizable, like a song called Tough World. Uh, you know, just little pickets, little things here and there. They're still recognized when we play them on stage other than the big hits.

So tell me about coming up with Love Is Like a Rock.

That was an in studio jam. We what we did was we had a tight tape machine and we made a loop out of it, a physical loop out of it, and you know, within a certain tempo. I mean, we had that we had the loops set up from one side of the studio to the other to make this big tape loop. Anyway, that's how we came up with the with the beat, and pretty soon Marty put in the uh, the riff, the guitar riff and the bass

So you worked that record, Tell me about recording the next record, The High End.

Mighty, The High and Mighty. We had all kinds of problems with in the studio that some of the that was a that was a gut wrenching experience because the studio tape at the time wash was coming apart. They were the the not the shiny side, but the other side where the where the music's at it was. It was deteriorating for some reason. We had no reason, no idea why, but for that reason we had to We had to just like go with what we had. And

So what's your attitude going into recording the next album? Fortune for ten.

Ooh, we felt a little better, then felt a little better. I honestly don't remember what we've done this, Like, I don't ten to twelve albums, and I don't remember exactly what songs are on there.

Well, let me talk about some of my favorite songs. Well, can you tell me about Stage Door, Johnny?

Oh, yeah, I like that tune. I thought that was a good tune. Yeah, we don't do it anymore, but because not that people, not that many people remember it. But yeah, I thought that was a good song. It's one that we could have continued on, continued on with. But I think that whole record, that whole the whole story behind it, just give us a bad taste of what can happen when things are right in the studio. I mean, it's just, you know, we stayed away from that record as much as possible.

Well, what was such a bad experience in the studio.

Well, the problems that we were having with tape, with the problems with the studio, everything was the things just weren't right.

Actually, I'm talking about the next album, Fortune for ten. What was your experience recording that?

Oh? Uh, Fortune for ten was it was a pretty good time. I remember. I remember doing the songs and taking them into uh take him to Cleveland, try to get some uh uh some airplay on it. I went to see kid Leo. Uh do you remember him Choreo of course mms, yeah, yeah, we I remember going in and he said, well, what the heck is Fortune for Ten? I said, I said, you know what, it's my glasses, the glasses I used to wear. That's what the name

How did you decide to name the album Fortune for ten?

Well, I'll be like I said, it's just, uh, let's give it a name. So I named it after my glasses.

And then and my other favorite song on that album is Never Did. Can you tell me anything about that?

Yeah? That Never Did us a good song. That was written by Albritton McClain or bass player who's a massive, massive talent in his own right. He sings, he plays, he he was he was a gifted player. This guy. I mean, he brought a lot to the table if if musicians listened to the bass and some of the stuff he does he does on My Girl and uh and some of the other things that he does little nuances that he does. He's he's he's just he's just a cut above. He's got natural ability.

On that album, there's a song do you Compute? This was before everybody had a computer on their desk at home. Where did that even come from?

It came from Mark. He bought the guitar. The atari thing is. Yeah, Uh, he bought that, and uh he said, Man, we got to get into this uh this computer thing, I said, And if we would have had the money, we would have spent some money on uh, you know, on Microsoft and all that ship. We just we just didn't have the money. But anyway, yeah, we we got the computer. Mark was very much into computers. He still is. He's just like, well he's he's a genius. What can

So then it ends with mc A. How does it end with m c A.

Well, it's it's kind of a long story, but basically what happened is we weren't happy with what Rick Freo was doing on his end, uh, and Mike Belkan and I just, uh we just decided we wanted to get away from them and uh and move on. So we did. We did. There was a whole court thing involved in uh and uh. You know it ended up where they did let us go. So we were on our own time. We were fine.

Okay, at what point do you realize, Wait a second, this isn't working. I'm gonna working at a mortgage shop.

Oh let's see, No, when was this? This was? Okay? Yeah? Like right after that, right after that, me and a buddy of mine, we were kind of local celebrities around here. He he was a local celebrity because of football he played. He played for the Steelers. He played for Kansas State and he played for the Steelers, and he and I were kind of kind of a big deal around here. So this guy who owns a mortgage company says, I want you to come and work for me. We think

Now.

We're still going out and having a good time doing shows, just handpicking these great shows we're going to. We are going to the Bahamas the February or March or next year at We're gonna do some show with Billy Ocean or I think Billy Billy Ocean. Uh, Yeah, I think it's him and like two or three other like big name bands, and I'm like, I'm into it. Yeah, let's go because it's on a stage where the stage looks like a big clam. It's a big clam that we're

Okay, would you make more money at being a mortgage broker or being a musician.

Being a musician, No, no doubt about it.

Okay, So from beginning to end, how long were you a mortgage broker?

Oh? Maybe five, six, seven years something like that.

And what's the key to being a mortgage broker? The key to be successful? Oh?

Oh, just it's like anything else, just like uh, getting to know people, getting to the getting to the getting to the point where you trust each other. You're doing trying to do them a good job. They're trying to do a good job too, and that's how you build up these uh these contacts. Yeah.

Was it depressing to have a street job.

No, not really. I mean I guess I guess it was. But I never got to a point where I let it really affect me. You know, I just went with the flow, and you know, everything was cool. It was successful. So yeah, that was fine.

Okay, tell me about the lawsuits.

Well, let me tell you about the first one. The first one was over Leah. There was a guy from the from Detroit who claims that who used to who used to go into the studio. He used to make tapes like the little cassette tapes, and he would send them out to all the record companies, and he felt that we had to have heard his tape before we were able to do Leah, which of course was bullshit. I mean, we wrote that song down in my basement, you know. So anyway, we go to court for all this.

And you're seeing another lawsuit.

Oh, let me go back to this one. First. The lawyer for this guy from Detroit was Bob Sear's attorney. He was Bogs I mean, come on, man, I mean never mind. Anyway, the other lawsuit was the one with MCA we and the one we wanted to get away from them and move on, and in the end we did, but you know, they it was just it was just something that I guess had to go to court in order to have some sort of ending to it, you know what I mean.

Was that expensive too?

Yes? It was, Yes, it was. I mean, here's basically what happened was. I said Mike, my manager, I said, look, I ain't got the kind of money now to go do another lawsuit. He said, don't worry about it. We'll take care of it. So at least cost wise, I was okay.

So, you least the leaking Continental at the height of the Rapper when it was Donnie iris and the Cruisers, was that ever financially successful.

For you, Donnie Irison the Cruisers?

Right?

Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely.

And at this late date, is there any income from those songs on those records?

Oh? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean, like I said, we're doing great gigs for the most part, sold out gigs to venues about you know, twenty twenty five hundred people. And yeah, I mean they're just they're great shows. Now I'm off for a while, but our next show will be in Pittsburgh with With Sticks and Reo Speedwagon, so I'm looking forward to that. That's in August. But in the meantime, I'm just gonna relax, smoke cigars and have a good time.

Okay, where did this cigar thing come from?

You know? I used to smoke cigarettes like they were going out of style. I mean, I was smoking three packs a day. As soon as I woke up, I smoked a cigarette, as soon as I got on the phone, I smoked a cigarette. I mean. It was awful until one night we were doing the show somewhere. I don't remember where it was or anything, but I came close to passing out on the stage. It was so bad. So I got the nicotine gum, I got the patch, I got all that stuff to try to quit smoking.

It works, just going back to the money for one second. What are you living on now? What's paying the bills? Now?

Well, it's it's uh, it's gigs, royalties, social Security. Ah. But like every every every every quarter, I get a check for you know, all my songs and uh. And now I'm with Mark Avssek put me with Warner Chapel, who really gathers up great, great stuff, so I get some money from them. Uh, and I'm doing fine.

So if you never did another gig, is there enough money from royalties to live on?

Mmm? Yeah, I think so with the with the Roorty money and the Social Security, I could I could get by. But I don't plan on quitting anytime too. I mean something would something bad would have to happen, and I'm hoping that doesn't happen because I'm want to keep going.

Okay, let's go back a step. You leave mc A. When you leave mc A, are you feeling like that's such a bad situation. I just got to get out of here or is it more of if we're with somebody else, we're going to have more success.

Yeah. I mean we weren't sure. We just wanted we just wanted to get away from them, and we knew our people, you know, Mike Belch and the CARMANDERI and those guys. They knew enough people that maybe we get a shot to somebody else. But basically we wanted away from m c A. They were at that time, they were really not not that good a record company as far as we were concerned. So, you know, whatever whatever happens after that, we thought, you know, we gave m

Okay, you take your chances. You never have major success after that? What did it feel like? And at what point did you give up the dream?

Oh? Hm uh, you know, I don't know. Something something inside, I guess keeps you going. And the fact that Mark Avsek and I were, you know, just such good friends and we've been through so much that you know, we figured,

Well, I've enjoyed talking to you, Donnie. Thanks so much for talking to my audience. I wish you good health. May you die on stage in your nineties.

That's what I plan on doing, brother, And thank you for everything. Bob, It's been a pleasure, man.

You bet till next time. This is Bob left set