John Mellencamp’s Spina Bifida Story Includes a Surgery That Sounds Impossible

John Mellencamp has built a career defined by grit, honesty, and an unflinching look at life in America. Known for heartland rock anthems and blunt interviews, he has never softened his past or leaned into mythmaking.

That includes the story of how close his life came to ending before it ever truly began.

One detail in particular continues to stop people cold. Doctors cut off his head to save his life.

The phrase sounds impossible, but it traces back to a real medical procedure connected to John Mellencamp's spina bifida diagnosis at birth that nearly killed him.

According to CBS News, John Mellencamp was born in 1951 with spina bifida and was one of three babies with the condition being treated at Riley Hospital. The odds were devastating. “They did three operations,” John recalled. “One died on the table. Another girl lived, I think, ’til she was 14, and then she died. And then me.”

He survived what others did not, but only through extreme medical intervention.

Describing the surgery, he said, “They basically cut my head off from here to here, laid it open, cut that thing off, then put all the nerves into my spine.” The phrasing is shocking, but it reflects how invasive and experimental the procedure was at the time.

Because he was among the first babies to undergo the operation, the cost was symbolic. “He charged my parents $1. I was a guinea pig.”

John said he didn't even know he had undergone the operation until he was around 9 or 10 years old, when another child asked about the scar on the back of his neck.

“I went home and asked my parents,” he said. “They said, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. You had an operation.'”

The gravity of what had happened only became clear later, as he grew older and understood how close his life came to ending.

Even during the peak of his career, the weight of survival never left him. He recalled walking down a street in New York during the height of his success in the '80s when an older woman stopped him.

“She said, ‘Do you know how many angels you have around you?’” he recalled. “‘You are covered with protection.’” At the time, he brushed it off. Looking back, he said, he might believe it now.

In 2014, he spent about an hour sitting with the doctor who performed the surgery that saved his life. Their conversation focused largely on faith.

“Basically, we talked about faith, ’cause I have very little faith in anything,” He said. He recalled the doctor repeatedly grabbing his hand and saying, “John, you need to have faith.” He said he has tried to take that advice to heart.

According to People, John announced his greatest hits tour in early 2026, with dates scheduled throughout that year. The announcement landed as a reminder that his career has stretched far beyond what most people would ever expect.

Reflecting on that reality, he said, “I don’t mean to sound corny, but I could never, in my wildest dreams, have imagined, when I made my first record at 22, that at 74, I would still be here.”

John views survival as action, not celebration. “[But] I don’t think it’s a good idea to sit on the couch,” he said. “If you want to die, sit on the couch.” For fans who know his medical history, those words land with extra weight.

His continued presence on stage feels less like routine touring and more like proof that surviving early odds shaped how he chooses to live decades later.

John's survival did not make him sentimental, and success did not make him forget how close it all came to ending. His music, his bluntness, and his refusal to slow down all trace back to a life that was never guaranteed. That perspective, more than fame or longevity, is what makes his story continue to resonate.