{"id":675535,"date":"2026-09-06T16:02:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T16:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/675535\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T16:02:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T16:02:21","slug":"megadeths-dave-mustaine-opens-up-about-surviving-cancer-in-new-memoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/675535\/","title":{"rendered":"Megadeth\u2019s Dave Mustaine Opens Up About Surviving Cancer in New Memoir"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Dave Mustaine, the long-haired, snarling founder of thrash metal band Megadeth<\/a>, learned he had throat cancer in early 2019, he was not at all prepared.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d always had problems with his teeth, so when he felt a hard-to-describe discomfort right at the back of his mouth, he went to the dentist and figured it would be \u201cthe usual drill and fill,\u201d the vocalist and guitarist writes in his new memoir, \u201cIn My Darkest Hour<\/a>,\u201d out Sept. 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

But the dentist didn\u2019t see anything wrong and sent him to an oral surgeon who poked around, took some X-rays and then delivered the news in a particularly unhelpful way, Mustaine says.<\/p>\n

He told Mustaine that he had \u201cthe Big C,\u201d aka throat cancer.<\/p>\n

Hearing that, \u201cI kind of went into a place of denial,\u201d Mustaine tells TODAY.com. \u201cI just walked out to my car, and I climbed inside of it. I don\u2019t know how long I sat there, maybe five minutes. It seemed like an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then called his wife, Pam, and made his way home. <\/p>\n

\"MustaineMustaine plays a show after his cancer diagnosis and treatment.Cameron NunezCancer Felt Different \u2018Because It Scared Me\u2019<\/p>\n

In between tour dates, Mustaine met with specialists and learned that he had squamous cell carcinoma, a type of cancer, right at the base of his tongue.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Mustaine had already survived painful spinal fusion surgery and substance use issues. But this one felt different \u201cbecause cancer scared me,\u201d he says. \u201cThe other things that happened to me \u2014\u00a0they were just inconveniences along the way.\u201d <\/p>\n

Once the diagnosis became public, Mustaine started hearing from all corners of the heavy metal world, he writes. Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>, Paul Stanley of KISS and even James Hetfield, Mustaine\u2019s former Metallica bandmate, all reached out. <\/p>\n

But it was a call with Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson, who\u2019d been through a battle with Stage 3 throat cancer just a few years earlier, that made the biggest impact. Dickinson helped Mustaine process his diagnosis and envision his post-treatment future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing he said was not to rush, and to take my time with the healing,\u201d Mustaine says, \u201cbecause some people have been diagnosed in remission and they think that\u2019s a green light to go back to singing. And in some cases, it is the wrong thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to take a chance,\u201d Mustaine says. \u201cI just cooled out.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Mustaine'sMustaine’s T-shirt reveals his thoughts on cancer.Pam Mustaine<\/p>\n

Megadeth was still making its 16th album, \u201cThe Sick, the Dying… and the Dead,\u201d he says, so he focused on finishing the guitar parts and took a break from singing.<\/p>\n

Not only was the call with Dickinson a reminder not to rush, it gave him some much-needed hope, Mustaine says in his memoir, which was co-written with Joe Layden. Not just hope that he would survive the disease, but also that Mustaine could one day come back to the stage \u2014\u00a0as long as he took it slow and gave his body time to heal.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what he did. <\/p>\n

A Grueling Treatment Regimen<\/p>\n

At age 57, Mustaine endured a grueling regimen of chemotherapy, radiation and then a combination of the two. <\/p>\n

One particularly harrowing part of treatment was getting fitted for his radiation mask, which required him to lie perfectly still while a sheet of hot nylon mesh was stretched over his face. <\/p>\n

\"MustaineMustaine after a chemotherapy session.Pam Mustaine<\/p>\n

The anxiety and claustrophobia, along with the weight of his diagnosis, made this an impossible task, Mustaine writes in the book. It took another two appointments \u2014 and a small dose of Valium \u2014 to get through the fitting.<\/p>\n

(Asked if he has any advice for other people who get anxious during medical procedures, Mustaine simply replies, \u201cSedation.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The treatment took a toll on Mustaine\u2019s teeth, he writes, particularly the radiation. While only one had to be fully extracted before treatment, he says, a few others fell out in the following years \u2014 including one that popped out while he was eating chocolate.<\/p>\n

Finally, in January 2020, he returned to the stage with Megadeth, cancer-free.<\/p>\n

\"MustaineMustaine shows his missing tooth.Dave Mustaine<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first show that I did after going through treatment and getting the green light \u2014 and it literally was getting a green light (from the doctors) because of what Bruce had said \u2014 and we ended up playing in Helsinki, Finland,\u201d he recalls. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn the outside, I guess I was being Dave,\u201d he says, \u201cbut on the inside I was crying like a baby at how how touching it was (to see) the fans\u2019 support and them cheering me on, and it was just just remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just a few months later, the COVID pandemic would force the band to postpone many of their tour dates. <\/p>\n

Paying the Hope Forward<\/p>\n

Since then, the band has released its final album and announced a global farewell tour.<\/a><\/p>\n

And Mustaine\u2019s vocal abilities continue to return. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been able to add songs back into our live set because my voice is coming back in certain songs that I couldn\u2019t sing before,\u201d he says, including \u201cThis Was My Life,\u201d \u201cHook in Mouth,\u201d \u201cLiar\u201d and \u201cTake No Prisoners.\u201d Those have \u201ca little bit of a higher register\u201d to them, which Mustaine is now able to sing again.<\/p>\n

\"MustaineMustaine and his wife, Pam.Pam Mustaine<\/p>\n

On the other side of everything, sharing his cancer experience now is a way of paying it forward, he tells TODAY.com. <\/p>\n

\u201cI met a lot of people out on the road that said they had cancer too,\u201d Mustaine says. \u201cAnd I thought, you know, I got through this. … My story is such a story of hope and how everybody rallied around me.\u201d <\/p>\n

The main goal was \u201cjust to give some hope to people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Dave Mustaine, the long-haired, snarling founder of thrash metal band Megadeth, learned he had throat cancer in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[18,117,19,17,337],"class_list":["post-675535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117224941351549000","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}