MEGADETH frontman Dave Mustaine is set to release his next memoir, In My Darkest Hour, on September 8, 2026, through Grand Central Publishing’s newly launched Da Capo imprint. The book chronicles Mustaine’s intense battle with squamous cell carcinoma at the back of his tongue, a diagnosis he received in 2019.
Described by the publisher as a “powerful reflection on the harsh truths and raw realizations that can only come from confronting death,” the memoir goes far beyond a standard cancer story. “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 obtained by Rolling Stone. “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.”
The Da Capo imprint, focused on music-related books, is the reincarnation of Da Capo Press, which Hachette Book Group acquired in 2016 as part of its purchase of Perseus Book Group. After being folded into Hachette Books in 2018, the imprint was dissolved in 2024 during a company restructuring, before being relaunched as Da Capo.
“In My Darkest Hour is Dave Mustaine at his most revealing, vulnerable, and true,” said Ben Schafer, Da Capo’s executive editor. “With lacerating honesty and soulful reflection, he speaks to the universal human experience of facing serious illness and how it changes a person, their family and friends, and one’s relationship with creativity.”
The memoir was co-written by The New York Times journalist Joe Layden, who previously collaborated with Mustaine on his 2010 autobiography Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir. Layden also worked with KISS guitarist Ace Frehley on No Regrets: A Rock ‘N’ Roll Memoir and authored The Last Great Fight, which covers James “Buster” Douglas’s shocking knockout of Mike Tyson in 1990.
According to Da Capo, In My Darkest Hour “takes readers from the treatment room to the studio as Mustaine chronicles how his diagnosis inspired him to take up the pen and guitar pick, going from radiation and chemotherapy appointments straight into hours-long recording sessions, resulting in MEGADETH’s sixteenth studio album, The Sick, The Dying…And The Dead!”
The book also explores how confronting mortality strengthened Mustaine’s personal and creative life. “For Mustaine, it was one more opportunity to fight like hell,” the publisher writes. “Along the way, Mustaine details how confronting his own mortality brought him closer to his family, taught him how to ask for help, strengthened his faith, and challenged the vulnerability of his art.”
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.