The PopCulteer
November 28, 2025

Dammit, Lee.

That’s not your typical opening line for an obituary, but he would love it.

Lee Harrah, one of my and Melanie’s closest friends, passed away suddenly yesterday, after years of serious health issues. PopCult fans should remember Lee as the host of Harrah’s Hard & Heavy and my co-host on Word Association with Lee & Rudy on The AIR, as well as his many appearances in a several different bands on Radio Free Charleston, and his many cameos in some of our toy show photo essays.

He was part of our family.

Lee in his element, wearing a Hulk shirt at a toy show.

Lee was a powerful singer, an artist, an avid comic book and action figure fan and collector. He was also like a little brother to me. Mel and I loved the guy. He’s practically the only person we’ve ever taken with us on our travels. We’d dragged him along to Wheeling for toy shows many times and even took him on a road trip to JoeLanta once. It’s wrecking me that we never got to take him to New York City.

Oh, and aside from singing with some great bands, Lee was also a Ghostbuster. He touched so many lives, and despite a gruff exterior, he could be one of the most loving, caring, and at times infuriating people you’d ever want to meet.

Aside from being in front of the camera on RFC, Lee was a trusted production assistant, running camera on several segments and appearing on the show many times in non-singing roles. Lee and I even appeared in Eamon Hardiman’s horror movie, Porkchops, together.

Life had not treated Lee well for the last decade or so. To be honest, neither did Lee. He fell into a trap that I was all-too-familiar with of being a caregiver and not taking care of himself.

When his mother, Mikki, passed away, just about everything that could go wrong for Lee did. He lost his house, his job, people he trusted ripped him off, and his health deteriorated.

Impersonating Ozzy, with Kenny Booth

When he became homeless, his friend, Brian “Bearclaw” Woods gave him a place to stay, and tried to get Lee to take care of himself. Bearclaw’s incredible generosity and kindness, along with Lee’s beloved cat, Bobo, were all that kept him going at times.

Things had improved a little bit for Lee recently.  After several months of really being on the verge of death from congestive heart failure, he recuperated enough to join us on a trip to Wheeling for the ‘Berto Memorial Show in 2024 and then last summer we took him back for the first KrugerFest toy show.

Lee was a talented toy customizer, writer and artist, and I hate that we won’t see some of the projects he was working on fully realized.

Mostly I hate that I won’t get to see my friend again, and take him out to eat and then try to get a word in while he dominated the conversation with bizarre tirades about Conan, Popeye, M*A*S*H, Iron Maiden. zombie movies, the Ramones and of course, the Incredible Hulk.

If you knew Lee, you knew about his love of The Hulk.

Showing off custom toy creations by his friend, Tony DiTrapano at MEGO Meet

Lee and I had actually talked about this obituary back when our friend Johnny Rock died. I was hoping to never have to write it. He’d say to keep it short, but also to be sure and mention that Johnny Ramone was an asshole.

He had a much longer list than that, but I don’t have all weekend to write this. I’m trying to keep this light and funny, like Lee requested.

It’s not easy. He knew how much I hate writing obituaries for the people I care about.

I hope that, in whatever afterlife Lee made it to, he’s getting to hang out with Joey Ramone, Jack Kirby, George Romero, Lemmy, Ozzy, Peter Steele and his other heroes. Lee could be pretty heroic himself at times, and he was a good friend who would always have your back.

Mel and I are really going to miss him. We’d gone through a lot together over the last eighteen years. We had actually planned to get together today, but we did not get to do that.

Next month, the annual video episode of Radio Free Charleston will be devoted to Lee. Arrangements are still pending.

With his band, HARRAH, at The Sound Factory

Another Sound Factory show

Ad-libbing a host segment on Radio Free Charleston

That is this week’s PopCulteer. The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide will resume Monday. I’m not really in the mood to crank out any entries today.

I’m really going to miss hanging out with my friend. My friend who made me promise to run this photo with that caption.