{"id":776052,"date":"2026-09-19T18:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T18:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/776052\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T18:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T18:48:16","slug":"how-megadeths-dave-mustaine-survived-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/776052\/","title":{"rendered":"How Megadeth\u2019s Dave Mustaine survived cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave Mustaine<\/a> endured many tough times in the long months between being diagnosed with throat cancer in February 2019 and being declared cancer-free the following October. There was the emotional pain of breaking the news to his family and friends. There was the physical toll the radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment he endured took on him. But one of the worst things of all was the mask.<\/p>\n

Cancer patients who have to undergo radiation treatment on their head and neck, as the Megadeth<\/a> frontman did, have to wear a thermoplastic radiation mask \u2013 a mesh-like construct that holds the patient\u2019s head rigidly in place while it\u2019s bombarded with pinpoint radiation that destroys the cancerous cells. Dave had been warned by his radiologist that fitting the mask would be uncomfortable, but he didn\u2019t realise just how bad it would be.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey said they were going to have to put this plastic mesh over my head because I could not move, not even one millimetre,\u201d he recalls today. \u201cI said, \u2018OK\u2019 and didn\u2019t think anything of it. But what they do is take this plastic, heat it to a volcanic fucking magma temperature and slap it on my face. I thought I was going to have a baby! I went nuts!\u201d<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From Louder<\/p>\n

It took three different attempts in all to fit the mask, and only then with the aid of a little Valium to calm Dave\u2019s nerves.<\/p>\n

The mask appears on the cover of his new book, In My Darkest Hour, which charts his diagnosis, recovery and slow return to health. Where Dave\u2019s 2010 autobiography, Mustaine: A Heavy Metal<\/a> Memoir, was a wild, all-guns-blazing ride through his mercurial life, In My Darkest Hour is more focused, reflective and ultimately moving. It captures the dread and doubt that he went through, and the emotional and physical toll it took on both him and his family. But it also shines a light on his resilience and, ultimately, the sense of relief and hope that came with his all-clear.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI met a lot of people that had cancer, and a lot of them seemed really hopeless,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was pretty much what prompted me to do it, because I wanted to share the hope that was there for me at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Megadeth\n<\/p>\n

Megadeth\u2019s in 2025 (Image credit: Megadeth)<\/p>\n

He found out he had cancer during a visit to an oral surgeon in early 2019. He had been suffering from an indefinable ache in his jaw \u2013 not quite toothache, but similar. In the book, he relates how the surgeon broke the news to him: \u201cHe stands over me, hands folded across his chest and takes a deep breath. \u2018Well, looks like you\u2019ve got the Big C.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Recalling that moment and the subsequent journey while he was writing the book wasn\u2019t as painful as it could have been.<\/p>\n

\u201cMostly, it was cathartic,\u201d he says. \u201cThere were times, of course, after the chemo and the radiation, where I\u2019d be so exhausted that I fell asleep. And they\u2019d have students poking me in the neck with needles over and over trying to find my lymph glands, which made my wife lose her mind. But I knew every inch of the journey, so I knew how dark it got.\u201d<\/p>\n

In My Darkest Hour isn\u2019t just Dave\u2019s own recollections of the time. It also features input from people who were in his orbit during this period, from his wife, Pam, and children Justis and Electra, to the singer\u2019s radiologist, Dr Anthony Cmelak (who contributed lyrics for the Megadeth song Dogs Of Chernobyl, from 2022\u2019s The Sick, The Dying\u2026 And The Dead!) and even his jiu jitsu teacher. These were the people that helped get him through the ordeal.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve always needed a lot of help in this world, and I\u2019m not afraid to ask for it,\u201d says Dave. \u201cFamily, faith, even my martial arts training \u2013 they all helped a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave made his diagnosis public in June 2019. There was never any intention to keep quiet about it.<\/p>\n

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\"Megadeth&lsquo;s\n<\/p>\n

Dave Mustaine with his daughter Elektra and wife Pam in 2016 (Image credit: Rick Diamond\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been pretty open with people,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are a lot of people who have prayed for me over the years. The reason I didn\u2019t keep it quiet was to let the people who are my support system know, because I\u2019m the dude who has needed prayer his whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the news broke, he received messages of support from several famous friends and fellow musicians. Among them were Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and, more surprisingly, James Hetfield, the man who had fired him from Metallica back in 1983.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t any more significant than the other people who gave their support to me,\u201d he says of the notable names who reached out. \u201cI\u2019ve always looked at that stuff like one beggar giving another beggar a crust of bread. But I appreciate it, because I know how our time is measured out, and to take the time to stop and do something like that means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

One person who did offer some useful advice was Bruce Dickinson. The Iron Maiden frontman had gone through treatment for throat cancer a few years earlier. Bruce passed on his own experiences of what to expect, and also gave
Dave one simple but invaluable piece of advice: \u201cSurround yourself with good people\u2026 make sure you\u2019re spending time with people who are upbeat and positive.\u201d Or, as the Megadeth man writes in the book: \u201cStay away from assholes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBruce had some fantastic stuff to say as a cancer survivor,\u201d says Dave today. \u201cThere\u2019s a big difference between someone saying \u2018You\u2019re in my thoughts and prayers\u2019, versus somebody who goes into detail about his treatment and tells you about the outcome. I needed hope, and he gave me it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Megadeth&lsquo;s\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Katja Ogrin)<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the treatment itself was tough: first the radiation, then the chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely hated getting up in the morning to go for treatment, but I knew I wouldn\u2019t do it by myself,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I hired a person to come into my room, whether I was asleep or not, get me up, make me get dressed, put me in the car, take me to my appointment, bring me home, and pour me back into bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave had planned to start work on the follow-up to 2016\u2019s Dystopia just before he received the news about his cancer. It\u2019s a measure of his endurance \u2013 or maybe his stubbornness \u2013 that he elected to carry on working on new music throughout his treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were all the stigmas that come along with it [the cancer diagnosis],\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I wanted to keep doing the record while I was going through treatment, I know there was doubt about how good it would have been:
\u2018How can a guy make a record when he\u2019s going through cancer treatment?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI only had two days where I was too sick to work and couldn\u2019t go to the studio,\u201d he continues, his voice edged with defiance even now. \u201cThe studio was built in a house right next to where I live, so I\u2019d go out my garage door, get into our little four-wheeler, drive through the field, pull up next door, walk through the door, and there was our studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finishing the new album would ultimately be held up even further by an altogether different illness in the form of the pandemic. The Sick, The Dying\u2026 And The Dead! \u2013 a title he insists had nothing to do with his own sickness \u2013 was eventually released on September 2, 2022, giving Megadeth their eighth US Top 10 album.<\/p>\n

Megadeth – Tipping Point (Official Music Video) – YouTube
\n\"Megadeth<\/p>\n

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If he\u2019d wanted to end the band there, it would have been the perfect valediction. Instead, they returned to the studio to make a follow-up, 2026\u2019s self-titled Megadeth. And that\u2019s when Dave announced that it would be his band\u2019s last album, and that they were embarking on a farewell tour.<\/p>\n

Today, he says his decision was down to a hand condition named Dupuytren\u2019s contracture \u2013 aka \u2018Viking Hand\u2019 \u2013 that prevents him from playing guitar to the level he wants.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tendon in the centre of my left hand that has nodules on it,\u201d he explains. \u201cThat whole area itches, burns and hurts. Whenever I play, that extra activity just makes it worse. My goal is to play until I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s considering surgery. \u201cBut even then, it\u2019s a 50-50 chance whether it turns out good or bad. I don\u2019t want to have someone cut my hand open and have it turn out worse forever. I know what I\u2019ve got right now, so I\u2019m going to put it to work and use it as much as I can. We have a beautiful tour lined up for the next couple of years, and there\u2019s a lot of other Megadeth-oriented stuff we\u2019re still going to do once playing is out of the picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are at least a couple of songs left over from sessions from the most recent album. One is called Bloodlust, the other Farewell My Love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought there was a third one called \u2018When Robots Rule\u2019,\u201d he says, \u201cBut I might be mixing things up. That\u2019s another byproduct of chemo and radiation called \u2018chemo brain\u2019, where you have a really hard time remembering things.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are definitely a bunch of older unfinished songs kicking around. Will he revisit them? Maybe, though they wouldn\u2019t be his priority if he does get his playing hand fixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could play old songs,\u201d he says, \u201cwhy wouldn\u2019t I want to focus on new songs instead?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Megadeth&lsquo;s\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Ross Halfin\/Press)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a funny moment in the new book where Dave relates that James Hetfield once jokingly said his former bandmate must have \u201ca horseshoe stuffed up my ass\u201d. How else could he have cheated death so many times other than pure luck?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, maybe the horseshoe had fallen out, or maybe it had rusted over and poisoned my system,\u201d writes Dave, thinking back to the moments after his initial diagnosis.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s incorrect to say the frontman cheated death once more \u2013 that does a disservice to the medical team that treated him and the people who supported him throughout that period. Still, surely it made him view mortality differently?Apparently not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI died once back in \u201992 when we were going through some really terrible times [with drugs] and everybody was doing all kinds of hardcore stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cI still know death is final. I still have pain and grief for the friends I\u2019ve lost. The only way that this could change me is just giving me experience in something that other people may not have faced and are terrified by.\u201d<\/p>\n

He empathises with anyone who is going through what he went through, though any advice he can offer comes with a quiet caveat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I need to be careful with is that there\u2019s not always a happy ending,\u201d he says. \u201cSome people wait too long, or some people don\u2019t follow medical direction. The smartest thing I could say to anybody is: be honest with yourself. You have to know that you need help, and help comes in many forms. And then I would say: be nice to your family, because you\u2019re going to notice when you need them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He laughs, and there\u2019s a flash of the Mustaine of legend. \u201c\u2019Cos they\u2019re going to have a hard time helping you if you\u2019re a dick.\u201d<\/p>\n

In My Darkest Hour is published on September 24 via Constable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Mustaine endured many tough times in the long months between being diagnosed with throat cancer in February…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-776052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}