John Mellencamp said his youngest daughter, Teddi Mellencamp, is not feeling well as she battles stage 4 brain cancer.
The 74-year-old musician appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Wednesday and discussed how Teddy is “really sick.”
“It’s not funny,” said John. “She has cancer in her brain and is suffering right now.”
Then he looked back at Teddy’s growth.
“He would call me and say, ‘Teddy, you don’t have to ask me what it is, you can figure it out…just figure it out for yourself,'” he recalled with a laugh. “You don’t need to hear everything, okay?”
The Jack & Diane singer has five children – daughters Michelle, 55, Teddy, 44, and Justice, 40, and younger sons Hud, 31, and Speck, 30 – but admitted it hasn’t always been smooth sailing as a parent.
“Girls, you lose it around age 12, but it comes back around age 21,” he said. “I kind of lost something of mine.”
Teddy revealed in 2022 that he had been diagnosed with stage 2 melanoma and continued to update fans on his health.
After undergoing several surgeries to deal with cancer-related tumors over the years, she revealed in April 2025 that the cancer had spread to her brain and lungs and progressed to stage 4.
However, Teddy gave a big positive update in October 2025 on his podcast Two T’s in a Pod, saying his cancer was “gone”.
“I had immunotherapy yesterday and a scan and there is no detectable cancer at this time,” she said.
“I was so shocked when they told me,” she added. “I was numb. I’m still on immunotherapy, so I’m still going to have days where I don’t feel well. So I’m still fighting, because you have to.”
However, she clarified that she is not considered to be in remission.
“When[doctors]say it works, it’s like after a year, two years, three years it’s considered remission,” she explained.
