'It's a weird world now': How Neko Case sideman Jon Rauhouse of Phoenix copes with cancer
Jon Rauhouse has just gotten out of radiation treatment — which was "absolutely good," he says, "because it stops the pain" — when the reporter calls to talk about the prostate cancer the Phoenix musician has been dealing with for most of 2021.
"It's a weird world now for me," he says.
And yet, the fact that Rauhouse didn't see this coming makes it feel a little like the rest of his existence.
"I mean, I'm a steel guitar player, for Christ's sakes, and I've played all over the world," he says. "It just doesn't seem normal. But it is for me. So I guess this is normal for me, too."
More: Best music of 2021: The top 20 albums that should be in every fan's collection
Why Rauhouse chose steel guitar
When Rauhouse started playing steel guitar, in the late '70s, it wasn't popular at all.
"They were trying to excise it out of all music," he says with a laugh.
"So it was kind of a weird thing for me to pick up at that time. Like, 'Yeah, I'll do that. Everybody seems to not want to hear it. I'll do it.'"
At the time, he was already playing banjo, which he still does, and was drawn to steel guitar by a local band, Yesterday's Wine, whose steel guitarist, Mike Hardwick, would go on to tour with such artists as Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Kelly Willis.
"I was totally fascinated by what he was doing," Rauhouse says. "And I just loved the way it sounded."
Having chosen to master an instrument that wasn't very popular when he was learning, he managed to carve out a niche for himself as an in-demand session and touring musician.
He's worked with Neko Case since 1999 and toured with Jakob Dylan, Billy Bob Thornton and Iron & Wine with Ben Bridwell.
In addition to playing on albums by Case, Thornton’s Boxmasters, Calexico, Dr. Dog, K.T. Tunstall, the Old 97's and Giant Sand, he's done several albums of his own.
"I've played pedal steel at Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Sydney Opera House," he says.
"One week, I'm playing steel guitar at the Hollywood Bowl with Neko. The next, I'm playing outside Stinkweeds next to the Short Leash (food) truck. And I loved both gigs."
'I had to have my wife help me out of bed'
It was at a session that he realized something wasn't right.
At first, he thought he'd thrown his back out carrying his pedal steel guitar up the stairs to a second-floor studio for a recording date in March.
"But it got to the point where I couldn't get up," he says.
"I had to have my wife help me out of bed, and I was walking with a cane just to go to the toilet."
He went to a physical therapist and after a month and a half or so of that, Rauhouse happened to mention the kidney stone that had given him trouble a few months earlier.
The therapist recommended he see a urologist, who sent him for a biopsy.
"They take 12 samples in a little cluster," Rauhouse says.
"All 12 of them had cancer in them. And I think 11 of them were 100%. So I'm like, 'Well, I guess we'd better start selling gear.' Just so my wife doesn't have to sell it all after I die."
He doesn't like to think those kind of thoughts, he says, but there's no way around it.
"You end up thinking about all that stuff," he says. "Like, 'Who's gonna get this guitar? Who's gonna get that guitar? What should I do with all this other junk that I've kept for no reason?'"
His first PSA test, a blood test that measures the amount of prostate-specific antigen in a person's blood, came back 144.
"It's supposed to be below four," Rauhouse says.
The oncologist put him on a drug designed to decrease his testosterone, followed by a shot of Lupron, a type of hormone therapy, and the hormone-based Zytiga.
"The next time I went in, I think my PSA was 44 because of the drugs," Rauhouse says. "The next time, it was 12. And then the last two times I've been in, one was 0.05 something and then the last one 0.014. So that's working great."
While all of that was going on, a radiologist was running tests to determine the source of the pain that, as Rauhouse recalls with a laugh, had him "walking around like Groucho Marx."
An MRI revealed a lymph node that had swollen into his sciatic nerve, which led to radiation therapy.
"The radiologist goes, 'After two days, you probably won't have any pain,' and I didn't," he says. "So that was great. I was like, 'I can't believe this is working.'"
'I'm gonna be able to get through this thing'
That radiation treatment proved to be a major turning point for Rauhouse.
"For a while there, I was like, '(Expletive) it, I'm dying,'" he says.
"I was looking at living with that kind of pain for the rest of my existence. And all of this happening during a pandemic made it all even more end of the world-type (expletive) for me. It was like, 'Oh great, on top of all this, now I've got cancer.' But the instant results of the pills and radiation made me feel like I'm gonna be able to get through this thing."
Rauhouse didn't realize he had stage four cancer until he saw it in some paperwork.
"And in parentheses, it said 'aggressive,'" he recalls.
"But they're telling me, 'We've done this treatment on people and it's been nine years. They're still out playing golf.' I think it's all just a new way to deal with it. They didn't do surgery. They didn't take it out. It's all maintenance."
The pills are expensive, but grants from the Johnson & Johnson Foundation and MusiCares helped him cover his expenses.
"So I'm hanging in there," Rauhouse says.
More: How this photographer got candid shots of Woodstock generation icons
'I couldn't feel more supported'
His friends in the music community have been great, checking in every day just to see how he's doing and sending food.
"I couldn't feel more supported," Rauhouse says. "It's really kind of beautiful."
Case made it easy for Rauhouse to sit out the tour he had agreed to do this summer.
"She was like, 'Look, if you want to come, you can come. If you don't, don't.' I was like, 'If somebody gets COVID out there and we all have to quarantine for two weeks on a tour bus I don't think I could take it."
Case ended up cutting the tour short after getting COVID.
"So I ended up lucking out on that one," Rauhouse says.
He feels especially lucky to have a wife as loving and helpful as Jennifer Rauhouse.
"My wife is just killer," he says. "She's been doing all the stuff that I can't even think about. Half these pills, they make your brain all foggy. You're like, 'I dunno. We have an appointment when?'"
He's had to cancel several gigs beyond the tour with Case because there are times, Rauhouse says, when "I get so freaking exhausted I can't even pick up my guitar."
But the gigs he's been able to play have been great and he's looking forward to working with Case on new music in the new year. She has 10 days booked in Tucson.
He'd like to get back on the road at some point.
"I'm getting old anyway," he says. "I'm 63. But usually, with Neko, we do three weeks, take a couple weeks off and then do it again. If that's the case, I still think I can do that."
More: Phoenix guitarist remembered as 'one of the best' by bandmate Jon Rauhouse
How Rauhouse stays positive
He's not planning too far out, though.
"It could all go south tomorrow," he says. "So I've been trying to just ... you know, (expletive) stupid statements like 'live in the moment.' But I really am."
The whole experience has made him want to focus on the positive.
"That's kind of hard nowadays," he says.
"But I am trying really hard. Everybody wants to fight about something. And I'm not gonna do it. If I've got two weeks left, I don't want to do that for two weeks. I'd rather be pleasant and happy. I hate to have to think in those terms, but I do now. All the time."
He's even learned to see the humor in his situation.
"You can make a lot of jokes," he says. "And some of them aren't funny. But there's a lot of material there. I mean, I've got it. And ignoring it ain't gonna make it go away. So I make jokes because there's nothing else I can do, really. And it immediately makes people feel OK."
Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.
Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Neko Case sideman Jon Rauhouse is taking cancer in stride
