Punk Rocker John Stabb Dies Day Before Cancer Benefit

John Dukes Schroeder, the hardcore punk rocker known as John Stabb, died Saturday of stomach cancer, age 54. ‘Boycott Cancer,’ Sunday’s John Stabb benefit show at the Black Cat, became a memorial.

Lead singer for ’80s band Government Issue, Schroeder was called the “Clown Prince of Punk.”

“We wanted to mix the anger with humor,” he told the Vinyl District. He was featured in the documentary “Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington D.C.”

The name Stabb came from the earlier incarnation of Government Issue, a band called the Stab. Schroeder performed solo and with others since G.I.’s 1989 breakup. His most recent band was History Repeated.

Bobby Polsky, who owned Smash Records when it was on M Street in Georgetown (it moved to Adams Morgan in 2007) told WTOP that when the singer came to the store with records and T-shirts, “he would ask about new bands. He was always interested in local bands.”

Schroeder had been diagnosed in February. He is survived by his wife, Mina Devadas.