Hippo Campus frontman Jake Luppen has made the stunning announcement that he will undergo a six-hour “open brain surgery” after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.
“While a medical procedure of this nature carries some scary risks, my family and I couldn’t ask for a better surgical team to perform this surgery, which is scheduled for November 6th,” Luppen, 31, wrote to fans via Instagram on Wednesday, October 14, alongside an image of a CT scan of his brain.
The musician explained that he learned seven years ago that he had a “9 mm lesion” near his basal ganglia — which control motor functions and cognition in the brain — after undergoing an MRI for recurring migraine headaches.
“This past summer a routine scan showed some possible growth in this lesion, which prompted an EEG test — to my surprise, the panic symptoms I had been experiencing were actually focal seizures,” he recalled.
Luppen is being treated at the world famous Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where doctors diagnosed him with a “stage two glioma.” The hospital classifies glioma as a mass of cells that “press on brain or spinal cord tissue,” causing symptoms such as headaches, decline in brain function, memory loss and personality change, among other issues.
“My neurologist and neurosurgeon at Mayo determined that the best route to recovery would require a craniotomy to remove the lesion, as its critical location renders the option for a biopsy to be too dangerous,” the Hippo Campus singer noted. “This kind of open brain surgery lasts for about six hours and requires that I’m awake so that they can safely access what they believe is a stage two glioma (slow growing, low grade brain tumor).”
He added, “They’ll remove as much of the lesion as possible and then send it off for testing. Once we know what it is, we’ll know how to treat it.”
Luppen acknowledged that it “might be a second” before he’s able to play music again after his open-brain surgery — thus Hippo Campus will play a show at the histroic Turf Club in their hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, on Monday, October 19.
“We’re playing a show at Turf Club to rage for one last time before I’m on my ass for a few months. Rest assured I will work as hard as I can to get back on stage asap.” he promised. “I’ll keep y’all updated throughout this journey. Gonna be a wild ride.”
In the comments section of his post, the Hippo Campus artist light-heartedly clarified that his tumor is “not in my hippocampus.”
His band later announced that their Turf Club gig had already sold out within hours of going on sale, adding via Instagram, “See you monday mn.”
The indie rock band formed in St. Paul in 2013 and released their debut album, Landmark, four years later. Their music has subsequently featured in the hit rom-coms To All the Boys: Always and Forever and Anyone But You, with their most recent record, Flood, releasing in September 2024.
Luppen has also released solo music projects under the alias “Lupin.”
