Mike Posner Walked 2,850 Miles for His Father. Here's the Story Behind It

What happened

Jon Posner was a Detroit-based workers'-rights and disability lawyer. He was also the father of singer-songwriter Mike Posner, best known for "Cheerleader" and "I Took a Pill in Ibiza." In 2016, Jon was diagnosed with brain cancer. He died in January 2017, at age 72, not long after his son had moved back from Los Angeles to be near him.

Rather than retreat from public life, Posner has spent the years since talking, singing, and eventually walking about what that loss did to him. In April 2019, he set out from Asbury Park, New Jersey, and walked roughly 2,850 miles to the Pacific coast. He arrived that November, after nearly seven months on foot. He described the trip as dedicated to processing his father's death. Along the way he was bitten by a rattlesnake in Colorado and hospitalized, then went back to walking once he'd recovered.

The reality behind the song

Posner's song "Move On," and its video, draw on grief from two directions at once. One is his father's death from brain cancer in 2017. The other is the death of his friend and frequent collaborator, the DJ and producer Avicii (Tim Bergling), who died by suicide in 2018. Posner has spoken about both losses, plus the later death of his friend Mac Miller, as a stretch of grief that reshaped how he saw his own life and career.

Brain cancer covers a range of tumor types with very different outlooks. Reporting on Jon Posner's case has not said which type he had. Glioblastoma is one of the more aggressive forms. It's often what's meant when a brain cancer diagnosis moves quickly from diagnosis to end-of-life care, which several accounts describe here. But we have not independently confirmed that specific diagnosis. We note it only as the most commonly reported detail, not a confirmed fact.

Why walking helped

Posner has described the walk in interviews not as a stunt, but as a way to give himself uninterrupted time to grieve. He wanted to reset a life that had, by his own account, come unmoored after several losses in a short span. That instinct — to physically move through grief rather than only sit with it — isn't unusual. NCI's guidance on coping with loss says grief has no fixed timeline or "correct" way to be processed. Physical activity, changes in routine, and giving yourself permission to grieve on your own schedule are all reasonable parts of that process, alongside more traditional support like counseling or support groups.

What to keep in perspective

• One person's grieving process — whether that's a 2,850-mile walk or something much smaller — isn't a template anyone else has to follow.
• Losing a parent to cancer and losing a close friend to suicide are different kinds of grief. Posner has spoken about both without folding them into one experience, and it's worth not doing that on his behalf either.
• If you're supporting someone whose parent has a serious cancer diagnosis, NCI's caregiving resources are written for exactly that. You don't need the right words, just steady presence.

Sources

• NPR: To Reset Your Life, A 13-Week Walk Across America
• BBC: The pop star who walked across America
• Rolling Stone: See Mike Posner Pay Tribute to Avicii in 'Move On' Video
• NCI: Adult Central Nervous System Tumors Treatment
• NCI: Coping with Cancer

How this article was prepared

An AI-assisted editorial system helped prepare this page. No named medical reviewer has reviewed it unless one is listed.

Cancer Explained is published by the National Cancer Information Foundation. It is not medical advice and does not suggest a test or treatment.

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