Donnie iris biography

Add “The Story of Donnie Iris and The Cruisers” to your Christmas list.

That’s the brand new, long overdue biography on western Pennsylvania’s resident rock star.

Award-winning journalist D.X. Ferris did a vast and unprecedented amount of research to chronicle, in plain-spoken prose, the one-of-a-kind story of how a kid from Ellwood City goes on to write a chart-topping song with Beaver County R&B grupp the Jaggerz, then 10 years later leads another regional grupp to national rock ‘n’ roll success.

Ferris — a Pittsburgher and a Clevelander, just like Iris’ rock band, The Cruisers — follows through with the story of how Iris became one of the region's most beloved icons, who regales friends and onlookers with stories at his monthly cigar smoking events at Jergel’s Rhythm Grille, where Iris and Ferris will conduct a book-signing Dec. 20. That will be the only way to buy the book until its national release in 2018.

Ferris,

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Ah! Donnie! Beaver County rock star signs book

ENTERTAINMENT

Donnie Iris held a book signing at Jergel's Rhythm Grille in Warrendale on Wednesday night. [Lucy Schaly/BCT staff]

Beaver County Times

Cyndy Schnell of New Castle watches Donnie Iris sign his biography at Jergel's Rhythm Grille in Warrendale on Wednesday night. [Lucy Schaly/BCT staff]

Beaver County Times

John Sciere of Bellevue poses for a photo with Donnie Iris after he bought Donnie 's biography at Jergel's Rhythm Grille in Warrendale on Wednesday night. At right is the author, D.X. Ferris. [Lucy Schaly/BCT staff]

Beaver County Times

Long lines came out to catch Donnie Iris at a book signing at Jergel's Rhythm Grille in Warrendale on Wednesday night. [Lucy Schaly/BCT staff]

Beaver County Times

Mark Wehr of Aliquippa takes photos on his phone of Donnie Iris signing seven copies of his biography, Donnie Iris and the Cruisers, at Jergel's Rhythm Grille in Warrendale on Wednesday night. [Lucy Schaly/BCT staff]

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While the music of the '90s is more technologically advanced than it was in the '60s when Donnie Iris, lead singer of Donnie Iris and the Cruisers, got started, the tunes and the lyrics are still drawn from the lives and experiences of the artists.

Iris said recently the most autobiographical of all his songs is "10th Street." He grew up on Crescent Avenue near Tenth Street in Ellwood City.

"I used to get out of bed in the morning and walk across the street to West End School. It was my school, and the song is about the school and the kids I grew up with and, later on, about the bars we hung out in."

In the song's opening, Iris sings about Pooch, Billy, Bobby and Ricky the Knife. Pooch is Raymond DeFonde, who lives in Portersville, Billy is William DeSanzo, who could not be located for this story, and Bobby is Robert "BoBo" Fike, who now lives out of state. Ricky the Knife is a fictional character used to fit the rhyme scheme.

DeFonde's wife, Agnes, said DeFonde had