Megadeth architect and frontman Dave Mustaine is preparing to share the raw, unfiltered story of his toughest fight yet. The 64-year-old heavy metal legend has announced his upcoming memoir, “In My Darkest Hour,” which will chronicle his intense 2019 battle with throat cancer.
Arriving in September 2027, the book will be published through Grand Central Publishing’s recently revived music imprint, Da Capo.
During a recent interview with “WAPL Mornings With Laura Lee & Cutter,” Mustaine opened up about what fans can expect from the pages of the new book. He was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma at the base of his tongue in 2019, a diagnosis that required immediate and severe intervention.
Instead of putting his life on hold, Mustaine famously continued to work on music through the physical toll of the treatments.
“What I would say probably is the best way to summarize the book is it’s the medical process and then what life was like at that time, and getting into the details. Because I would go and get radiation and chemotherapy, and then I would go to the studio and work. And some days I would get to the studio, we’d play and I’d have to run outside and throw up and go back inside and play. And I lost a lot of weight. And fortunately for me, I had [Megadeth drummer] Dirk [Verbeuren] there and [producer/engineer] Chris Rakestraw was there, and they were supportive and I got through it.”
Beyond the nausea and exhaustion, the treatment carried an immense professional risk. Because the cancer was located in his throat, any slight miscalculation during radiation could have permanently destroyed his vocal cords, effectively ending his career.
Armed with a fierce determination, Mustaine tackled the disease head-on.
“I wouldn’t wanna go through it again. I’m in remission right now — I’ve been for about six years — I imagine if anything happens again, I’m gonna have the same mentality about it, because when I went in there, I thought, ‘I’m gonna kill cancer.’ And … I was so pissed. ‘Cause I used to always joke around, anything that got in my body would die. And we caught it early and went through all of the treatment. But because I’m a singer, we had to do things totally different. We had to focus differently with the radiation. And if it would’ve been off by even a millimeter, that’s it for Dave.”
To help tell his story, Mustaine once again teamed up with The New York Times journalist Joe Layden. The duo previously collaborated on the singer’s highly successful first autobiography, “Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir.” Layden is a seasoned veteran in the publishing world, having also co-authored Ace Frehley‘s “No Regrets: A Rock ‘N’ Roll Memoir” and the iconic boxing book “The Last Great Fight.”
The release will also mark a major milestone for the publisher. It is one of the flagship titles for the newly reincarnated Da Capo imprint, a legendary name in music publishing that was restructured under the Hachette Book Group umbrella.
Dave publicly disclosed his cancer diagnosis in June 2019, sharing that doctors had given him a 90 percent chance of overcoming the disease.
He later confirmed that he had beaten cancer following 51 rounds of radiation therapy and nine chemotherapy treatments. Mustaine made his return to the stage in early 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic brought live touring to a halt for several months.
