SICK OF IT ALL's PETE KOLLER Says His Brother LOU KOLLER Lost 70 Pounds During His Cancer Battle

During an appearance on the latest episode of The Brooklyn Blast Furnace podcast, guitarist Pete Koller or New York hardcore legends SICK OF IT ALL offered a health update on his brother, SICK OF IT ALL vocalist Lou Koller, who announced in September that his cancer had returned just four months after celebrating being declared cancer-free. Pete said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I went up to see [Lou] a few weeks ago up in [New] Jersey. He's staying at my brother Matt's house. And Matt and his wife Connie are like saints… Matt retired early so he could live life. But now he's taking care of Lou. He's gotta be there. He's there 24 hours a day. So Lou actually has a feeding tube because… So when the cancer came back, he had two more tumors that were pushing his esophagus folds so the food wouldn't go in. And these tumors are on the sack of the stomach, so they can't operate on it. So everything has to be done by chemo. Also, he has a tumor, and I think it's on the sack of his stomach just before the intestines. So they can't operate on that either. It sucks. So everything depends on the chemo treatment. So he had to put the feeding tube in, because he couldn't really eat. So Matt and Connie had to change the feeding bag, like, every 12 hours or whatever the fuck, and they have to also inject water into him, 'cause it's hard for him to drink. And he doesn't drink enough. That's not good. That's on him. Someone's gotta rough that guy up. So he needs to drink more and all that. So where he is now, he did two chemo treatments so far. The tumors stopped growing, which is great news. But they haven't shrunk, so he has to keep going, and I think he has to do four to six more treatments. And they're brutal — absolutely brutal. The treatment, while he is there, I think it takes four to five hours, and then he has to leave. He has a port in him, and that's, like, a chemo drip for, like, 24 to 48 hours more chemo. So, after all this is done, he's completely fucked up — wrecked. But the last time he did it was just a few days ago, and usually I'll text him, like, 'Hey, how're you feeling?' I know he's not gonna write me back for two days. He immediately wrote me back. He goes, 'Yeah, I feel sick, but I feel pretty good.' More good news."

Pete continued: "[After last chemo session], for some reason, the enzymes in his liver were really high. And I don't know what that means. I'm just going off what he and Matt tell me. And so they had to do all these tests to figure out what it was and what they think it was, [they think it] was one of the ingredients in the chemo thing that made it do that. So they reconfigured [it], and then he did the chemo the other day. So hopefully it makes it even better. But before he went into the chemo, he actually started eating cream of wheat. You know that mushy stuff? So he started getting that down. And then he started eating eggs. He always has [the feeding tube] in him, 'cause he can't eat enough."

Explaining how Lou found out that his cancer had returned, Pete said: "I don't know if you guys knew this, but before all this happened, Lou weighed, like, 190 [pounds]. After the first round of all this, when they said he was cancer free, he weighed 140. [He's] six [feet], one [inches tall], I think. So then he's cancer free, but he's not gaining weight, he's feeling shittier. And you didn't see him online, you didn't see him like this. And then he went to the doctor, and the doctors were so alarmed, the way he looked. They were, like, 'What the fuck are you doing? You should have called. You should have said something.' And he was, like, 'Well, I told you this and this,' [and they said], 'But you didn't tell us this.' So Lou weighed 119 pounds. So, as soon as they saw him, they're, like, 'Yo, you gotta get tested.' And they took them right then and there to do all these tests, and that's when they found the three tumors."

Pete added: "Usually when you're with this cancer, and you're indeed cancer free, you have, like, five years of, like, you go back, you check. There's nothing going on. You go back. This was three months later and three tumors came back. So they're, like, 'What the fuck is going on?' So they had to redo all this stuff. So that's why they had to put the feeding tube in and water tube and all that."

Jimmy Ferrari from Blast Furnace Productions and "Heavy Healing" film's Howie Abrams have organized a new concert to raise funds that will go directly to Lou's Sweet Relief fund. Dubbed "A Benefit For Lou Koller", the show will take place on February 1, 2026 at Lucky 13 Saloon in Brooklyn, New York. Online tickets reportedly sold out in 54 minutes, but there will be 50 tickets (no more, no less) available at the door on a first-come, first-served basis.

A few days ago, Lou shared a new video message in which he said that his chemotherapy treatments were "going okay" but were "not really doing much." He explained: "I'm kind of at a stalemate where the tumors aren't growing and they're not spreading, but they're not shrinking either. So the plan is to keep going with the treatments and see what happens. And after that, we'll make a new plan."

Lou underwent chemotherapy last year after being diagnosed with an esophageal tumor.

When Koller first announced that his cancer had returned three months ago, he said in a video message: "I was having a really hard time with my recovery. I was having a tough time gaining weight and keeping food down. So I had some scans done, and sure enough, [the cancer] is back. But we're gonna take it day by day and see what happens."

A benefit concert supporting Koller's battle with esophageal cancer was held on November 23, 2024 at Irving Plaza in New York City. The "I'm In The Fight With Lou" event featured performances by VISION OF DISORDER, LIFE OF AGONY and MUNICIPAL WASTE, as well as veteran New York hardcore acts KILLING TIME and CROWN OF THORNZ. Notably, it marked VISION OF DISORDER's first live appearance since 2018. It was also LIFE OF AGONY's first show since the band's singer Keith Caputo — who came out as transgender and assumed the name Mina Caputo in 2011 — announced that he had "cured" his gender dysphoria and was planning to "physically completely detransition" in 2025 before officially changing his name back to Keith Caputo.

After Lou went public in late June 2024 with the news that doctors discovered a cancerous tumor in his esophagus, Pete set up a GoFundMe campaign to help cover some of the costs of his cancer treatment and assist with living expenses while the group is off the road and unable to tour. That campaign has since raised more than $380,000, with fellow artists AFI, RANCID and DROPKICK MURPHYS contributing $5,000 apiece, and bands such as SNAPCASE and HOT WATER MUSIC also making generous donations.

The long-running New York Hardcore band subsequently canceled its previously announced European tour dates.

When Lou first posted about the diagnosis on social media, he said: "[Doctors] found a tumor in my esophagus that goes into my stomach, and I'll have to be getting treatment all summer — and of course, with full support of the band. As soon as they heard it, they were, like, 'Forget the tour. Just get healthy.' … They're all behind me staying home and us staying home."

Koller ended the message by saying: "I'll hopefully beat this thing and see you at the end of the summer … or maybe the winter."

SICK OF IT ALL's European tour was supposed to kick off in the Czech Republic on July 4, 2024.

SICK OF IT ALL's latest album, "Wake The Sleeping Dragon!", was released in November 2018 via Century Media.