Janet Jackson Honors Her Father Joe Jackson As He Struggles With Terminal Cancer

Janet Jackson paid tribute to her ailing father on Friday while receiving the Impact Award at the inaugural Radio Disney Music Awards.

Joe Jackson, the 89-year-old patriarch of the very-talented Jackson clan, has been hospitalized and is in his final stages of terminal cancer.

Janet remembered him as an “incredible father“ who “drove me to be the best I can,” she told the audience. She was being recognized as one of the most influential artists in pop music (and the award henceforth would be called the Janet Jackson Impact Award).

Janet also thanked her mother and siblings: “My siblings set an incredibly high standard, a high bar for artistic excellence (and) my mother nourished me with the most extravagant love imaginable.”

TMZ reports that the Jackson family has been flocking to Joe Jackson’s hospital bedside in recent days.

“He’s very, very frail, he doesn’t have long,“ son Jermaine Jackson told the Daily Mail. ”The family needs to be by his bedside – that’s our only intention in his final days.”

On Sunday, Joe Jackson’s Twitter account sent out a post acknowledging that he was ill.

“I have seen more sunsets than I have left to see. The sun rises when the time comes and whether you like it or not the sun sets when the time comes.”