Musician and songwriter Dean Schlabowske spent nearly 40 years building an audience by returning to their towns, sharing meals and drinks after shows, and connecting with people through a common love of music.
He is now witnessing the payback. Last month, after returning from playing shows in the United Kingdom with his band the Waco Brothers, Schlabowske received a surprise medical diagnosis: Acute Myeloid Leukemia, an aggressive cancer of the blood and bone marrow that leads to heightened fatigue, shortness of breath and easy bruising.
Suddenly, his life turned upside down.
Instead of writing his next record or playing shows around town, he is now facing full days managing multiple medications, specialist appointments and chemotherapy treatments. Looming on the horizon: insurmountable medical costs, heading into the six digits.
For a musician whose income is built through touring and side jobs, both of which were no longer possible, the shift left him facing a dire outcome: “Put everything on credit cards and go bankrupt,” he said.
But then a friend in Austin, Texas, launched a fundraising campaign through GoFundMe to see if friends could help. Within a week, donors met the limit of $65,000 and it is now hovering around $80,000. Schlabowske said he does not recognize many of the donor names but suspects they all have a common trait: “They’re fans.”
“When I was super young and toured, me and the guys in the band thought it was cool to have this punk rock attitude where we were more cynical and not as outgoing and friendly, but I learned pretty quickly what you’re doing while you’re touring is creating goodwill,” he said. “You put that good karma out there for a lot of years and it pays dividends when you need it. I’m not going to lie. There are times I get pretty emotional about it.”
Schlabowske, 61, grew up in Milwaukee but moved to Chicago in 1987 where he got a job working at the legendary Wax Trax! record label. Through his noise rock band Wreck, he became a part of the city’s thriving post-punk scene for years. The trio recorded its debut EP with Steve Albini in 1990 and four years later hired Mekons co-founder Jon Langford, who had recently moved to Chicago from Wales, to produce its follow-up.
By then, Schlabowske had discovered country music and, with Langford and his fellow Welshman Tracey Dear, he formed the country punk band the Waco Brothers. The group performed its first show standing atop the bar at the Rainbo Club in Wicker Park. By 1995, the group released “To the Last Dead Cowboy,” their first recording which served as a pioneering statement for the burgeoning alternative country movement in Chicago.
With three principal songwriters — Schlabowske, Langford, and Dear — the Waco Brothers remain one of the most enduring bands out of Chicago that have tackled political and social injustice in their music for decades.
Over the years, Schlabowske released records with his side project Dollar Store and, in recent years, he collaborated with his wife, Jo Watson, who once headed the Austin band the Meat Purveyors, on playing bluegrass and honkytonk country.
Schlabowske received his diagnosis at an urgent care clinic where he went after a few weeks of feeling fatigued and nauseous. Not long after, Watson raced him to emergency care after his breath became dangerously short. After a week of procedures, he started his first round of chemotherapy. Complicating matters is the discovery of a weak heart valve that will require open heart surgery. He is commuting weekly from the couple’s Old Irving Park apartment to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.
Since his diagnosis, Schlabowske has put music on the back burner and is instead focusing on his regimen of appointments and medication, and taking a daily walk. He cannot see people for fear of an infection. At first, he had to board his two dogs, but they are expected home soon because he says he needs the emotional relief.
Despite the life change, he is taking everything in with a healthy dose of humor. “I’m 61. I’ve done a lot of cool [stuff]. Do I want to live to 100? Sure, but if that’s not meant for me, that’s not meant for me. This didn’t happen when I was 30. Any other way of looking at it leads to a dead end of depression,” he said.
Schlabowske and Watson recently relocated back to Chicago after living for a spell in Louisiana. He is insured through Watson’s job as a bookkeeper for a local business, but Schlabowske says the combination of a $10,000 deductible for this year and next, plus skyrocketing medical costs, make it not enough.
The response to the GoFundMe, he said, has been humbling, especially as he scrolls through donor names of people he knew or even briefly met five, 10, 20, 30 or more years ago. They are living proof of the community that music and audience can build together over years across cities, towns and even countries.
“A lot of those names that I don’t recognize are probably people I had a really pleasant conversation with at some point along the way,” he said. “I’ve always shied away from promoting myself. But I’m immensely grateful and incredibly touched that there are so many people who wanted to help out in such a big way. I never expected it.”
Music fans rally to support Dean Schlabowske of Waco Brothers after leukemia diagnosis 2026
IUSTITIA.BG – Investigations 2009-2026 2026-10-26 10:22:01
Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law
