He survived addiction, industry betrayal, and decades of metal warfare. But nothing prepared Dave Mustaine for cancer — and nothing will prepare you for what he has to say about it.
Grand Central Publishing's newly relaunched Da Capo imprint has officially set a September 8, 2026 release date for Mustaine's next memoir, In My Darkest Hour — a raw, unflinching account of the Megadeth frontman's brutal battle with squamous cell carcinoma, diagnosed at the back of his tongue in 2019.
"One of the most harrowing experiences of my adult life has been my seven-year journey through cancer treatment and onward into remission," Mustaine said in a statement. "This story is considerably more than just, 'Go to the doctor, get diagnosed, get treatment and hopefully I live happily ever after.' This was a journey of me saving myself, staying alive, keeping my family together, and continuing to make music through it all."
That last part is no small detail. While undergoing radiation and chemotherapy, Mustaine wasn't resting in a hospital bed — he was going straight from treatment appointments into recording sessions, ultimately completing Megadeth's sixteenth studio album, The Sick, The Dying…And The Dead! It's the kind of detail that sounds impossible until you remember who we're talking about.
The book was co-written by New York Times journalist Joe Layden, who previously collaborated with Mustaine on his 2010 memoir Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir — which debuted at No. 15 on the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction bestseller list — and also co-wrote original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley's No Regrets: A Rock 'N' Roll Memoir. Layden is no stranger to comeback stories; he also authored The Last Great Fight, chronicling Buster Douglas's shocking knockout of Mike Tyson in 1990.
Da Capo executive editor Ben Schafer called the book "Dave Mustaine at his most revealing, vulnerable, and true," adding that Mustaine speaks to the universal experience of confronting serious illness and how it reshapes a person, their relationships, and their creative life.
And this is Mustaine we're talking about — a man who has stared down an alcoholic father, addiction, black magic, and the kind of industry wounds that would have destroyed lesser artists. He turned 58 thinking he'd already survived everything life could throw at him. Cancer had other ideas.
Mustaine, now 64, publicly revealed his diagnosis in June 2019, telling fans the doctors had given him a 90 percent chance of beating it. After 51 radiation treatments and nine rounds of chemotherapy, he did exactly that — returning to the stage in early 2020, just weeks before COVID-19 shut the world down.
In My Darkest Hour promises to take readers from the treatment room to the recording studio, exploring how mortality reshaped Mustaine's faith, his family bonds, and his relationship with his art. For a man who has never been shy about his demons, this sounds like the most honest thing he's ever put his name on.
The book drops September 8, 2026. Clear your schedule.
