After revealing his throat cancer diagnosis last July, Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine has now confirmed he is "100 percent free of cancer."
The frontman shared the news from the stage late last week at a show in London, UK, on Friday (January 31) recalling how he initially found out while working on a follow-up to 2016's Dystopia LP.
"About a year ago, we were working on our new album back in Franklin, TN, and I started to feel some pain over here [points to throat]," Mustaine told the crowd. "So I went to the doctor and he said, 'Dave, you have cancer.' And I went, 'Fuck! I have cancer.' And I was so shocked. At first, I thought, 'Am I afraid?' And then I said, 'No. I'm fucking pissed.'"
Mustaine recalled how he stopped recording with his bandmates to undergo "51 radiation treatments and nine chemo treatments." He added, "And when it was all said and done, every day I would think, 'I can't face not playing again. I can't face not playing again.'"
Mustaine continued, "So I would pray. I know a lot of you guys know that I pray. I say that in [Megadeth's song] 'Peace Sells.' I pray every day. I say that in the song. I've said it since the second record. But I thought about you guys every day, too. And I thought about my family. And I got this power from you guys. And I just kept thinking about it. And on October 16, I went to go see the doctor, and he said, 'You're 100 percent free of cancer.'"
In conversation with Rolling Stone last November, Mustaine confirmed he had completed treatment but was not yet officially in remission.
Ahead of kicking off a European tour with Five Finger Death Punch last month, the frontman confirmed his return on social media.
Apart from the new Megadeth record, Mustaine's plans for 2020 also include a new memoir. Titled Building the Perfect Beast, the book will chronicle the creation of the band's revered 1990 album Rust in Peace.
Mustaine had previously told his own life story in 2010's Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir.
A synopsis for Building the Perfect Beast, set to arrive September 8 through Hachette Books, reads as follows:
Building the Perfect Beast details the making of Megadeth's iconic record, Rust in Peace, which was released in 1990, at an incredible time of flux and creativity in the rock world. Relayed by the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of Megadeth himself, Dave Mustaine, the book covers the process of hiring the band and supporting cast, of trying to handle the ensuing success, and ultimately the pressure of fame and fortune-which caused the band to finally break-up. In short, it's a true story of groundbreaking anti-pop that was moving toward the mainstream (or the mainstream that was moving toward the band), at a time of great cultural change, power, ego, drugs, and other vices that went hand-in-hand with Rock N' Roll, circa the late eighties-early nineties.
Little did Mustaine know that the birth pangs of the record were nothing compared to the oncoming pain and torment that would surround it. Alcohol, drugs, sex, money, power, property, prestige, the lies the band was told by the industry-and the lies they told each other-were just beginning, and much like rust in real life, these factors would ultimately eat away at the band's bond until only the music survived.
Building the Perfect Beast is a story of perseverance, of scraping off the rust off that builds over time on everything: ourselves, our relationships, pop culture, art, and music.
The frontman shared the news from the stage late last week at a show in London, UK, on Friday (January 31) recalling how he initially found out while working on a follow-up to 2016's Dystopia LP.
"About a year ago, we were working on our new album back in Franklin, TN, and I started to feel some pain over here [points to throat]," Mustaine told the crowd. "So I went to the doctor and he said, 'Dave, you have cancer.' And I went, 'Fuck! I have cancer.' And I was so shocked. At first, I thought, 'Am I afraid?' And then I said, 'No. I'm fucking pissed.'"
Mustaine recalled how he stopped recording with his bandmates to undergo "51 radiation treatments and nine chemo treatments." He added, "And when it was all said and done, every day I would think, 'I can't face not playing again. I can't face not playing again.'"
Mustaine continued, "So I would pray. I know a lot of you guys know that I pray. I say that in [Megadeth's song] 'Peace Sells.' I pray every day. I say that in the song. I've said it since the second record. But I thought about you guys every day, too. And I thought about my family. And I got this power from you guys. And I just kept thinking about it. And on October 16, I went to go see the doctor, and he said, 'You're 100 percent free of cancer.'"
In conversation with Rolling Stone last November, Mustaine confirmed he had completed treatment but was not yet officially in remission.
Ahead of kicking off a European tour with Five Finger Death Punch last month, the frontman confirmed his return on social media.
Apart from the new Megadeth record, Mustaine's plans for 2020 also include a new memoir. Titled Building the Perfect Beast, the book will chronicle the creation of the band's revered 1990 album Rust in Peace.
Mustaine had previously told his own life story in 2010's Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir.
A synopsis for Building the Perfect Beast, set to arrive September 8 through Hachette Books, reads as follows:
Building the Perfect Beast details the making of Megadeth's iconic record, Rust in Peace, which was released in 1990, at an incredible time of flux and creativity in the rock world. Relayed by the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of Megadeth himself, Dave Mustaine, the book covers the process of hiring the band and supporting cast, of trying to handle the ensuing success, and ultimately the pressure of fame and fortune-which caused the band to finally break-up. In short, it's a true story of groundbreaking anti-pop that was moving toward the mainstream (or the mainstream that was moving toward the band), at a time of great cultural change, power, ego, drugs, and other vices that went hand-in-hand with Rock N' Roll, circa the late eighties-early nineties.
Little did Mustaine know that the birth pangs of the record were nothing compared to the oncoming pain and torment that would surround it. Alcohol, drugs, sex, money, power, property, prestige, the lies the band was told by the industry-and the lies they told each other-were just beginning, and much like rust in real life, these factors would ultimately eat away at the band's bond until only the music survived.
Building the Perfect Beast is a story of perseverance, of scraping off the rust off that builds over time on everything: ourselves, our relationships, pop culture, art, and music.
