At a Glance
- John Mellencamp speaks exclusively to News Of Los Angeles about Teddi Mellencamp’s stage 4 cancer fight
- She still has 10 brain lesions that affect her thinking and personality
- Mellencamp checks in daily and wants her to move back to Indiana
- Why it matters: A rare, raw look at how cancer reshapes family life even when tumors shrink
John Mellencamp is opening up about the emotional toll his daughter Teddi Mellencamp’s stage 4 cancer battle has taken on their family, revealing that while recent scans show no active cancer, 10 lesions remain in her brain and continue to disrupt her daily life.
Daily Calls and a Changed Personality
The 74-year-old rock legend tells News Of Los Angeles he talks to Teddi “every day” as she undergoes ongoing treatment. According to Mellencamp, the lesions sit in her frontal lobe-the brain region that governs thinking, emotions, and personality-causing cognitive interruptions that have altered who she is.
“She’s been going through hell the last year,” he says. “Even though the lesions are not cancerous right now, they still interrupt her thinking, and it’s in her frontal lobe.”
Mellencamp adds that the changes go beyond memory lapses. “Her personality has changed. She’s still the same person, but she’s not the same person. It’s not fun.”
Treatment Timeline and Current Status
Teddi’s cancer journey began in 2022 with a stage 2 melanoma diagnosis on her back. Since then she has undergone:
- 17 surgeries for invasive melanoma
- Immunotherapy to control spread
- Radiation therapy for brain lesions
- Surgical removal of some lesions
In April 2025 she revealed the disease had advanced to stage 4, metastasizing to her brain and lungs. On the Oct. 3 episode of the Two T’s in a Pod podcast, Teddi said scans now show “no detectable cancer,” yet she remains on immunotherapy for at least another year and cautioned, “I’m not considered in remission.”
Mellencamp echoes her cautious optimism. “The lesions are still there, but the cancer’s not. That doesn’t mean she’s home free; it just means right now there’s no cancer. So she has to keep on this treatment for who knows how many years.”
A Father’s Wish
Living in Bloomington, Indiana, Mellencamp plans to visit Teddi when he travels to Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards. Between tour rehearsals he calls her religiously, describing her simply as a “great kid.”
His larger hope is that she’ll leave California and return to her Midwest roots. “I’ve tried to talk her into moving back home. I said, ‘Move back to Indiana, bring the kids and just come back and live in Indiana,’ but she won’t do it,” he told the Today show.
Life on the Road
Despite the family crisis, Mellencamp is preparing to launch his Dancing Words Tour – The Greatest Hits this summer. Reflecting on a career that began when he cut his first record at 22, he marvels, “I could never, in my wildest dreams, have imagined that at 74, I would still be here.”
For now, the daily phone calls between father and daughter continue, a ritual that keeps them connected across time zones and treatment schedules while Teddi fights to reclaim the life cancer keeps chipping away.
