Dave Mustaine has faced down a lot in his life. Now he is putting it all on the page. ‘In My Darkest Hour: A Memoir,’ written with Joe Layden, arrives September 8, 2026, published by Da Capo, and it covers the seven years Mustaine spent battling squamous cell carcinoma, fighting to keep his voice, his band, his family, and his life intact.
The diagnosis came in 2019, striking at the back of his tongue and threatening the one thing most inseparable from his identity: his ability to sing and play. Rather than step back, Mustaine went straight from radiation and chemotherapy appointments into recording sessions, a process that produced Megadeth’s sixteenth studio album, ‘The Sick, The Dying…and the Dead!’ “This was a journey of me saving myself, staying alive, keeping my family together, and continuing to make music through it all,” Mustaine says.
The book covers territory well beyond the medical. Mustaine traces how confronting mortality brought him closer to his family, challenged his relationship with his art, strengthened his faith, and taught him to ask for help. Da Capo Executive Editor Ben Schafer describes it as “Dave Mustaine at his most revealing, vulnerable, and true,” adding that it speaks to a universal human experience well beyond the Megadeth fanbase.
The timing is significant. Mustaine and Megadeth are currently on their multi-year farewell tour, and their self-titled final album, released January 2026, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, their highest chart position ever. The album hit number one in eleven countries and landed top five positions on eleven additional charts. After 40-plus years and 50 million records sold, Mustaine is going out at the top.
‘In My Darkest Hour: A Memoir’ arrives September 8, 2026, on Da Capo.
