DAVE MUSTAINE Plans To Review Leftover 'Half-Songs' From Recent MEGADETH Recording Sessions To 'See If There's Anything There'

During a question-and-answer session prior to MEGADETH's September 24 performance at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, band founder Dave Mustaine said that while stands by his pledge that the group's chart-topping 17th studio album will be its last, there may yet be additional MEGADETH material released in the future.

Speaking to the band's creative process, Mustaine explained that the band always enters the recording studio with a game plan, but sometimes, plans change. "We've always gone into the studio [with] songs [prepared]," he said, "but if you're a writer, you're going to write, and you go to the studio and you're making a record, it's not easy to just turn off the creative juices, you know?
I can't tell you how many megabytes of riffs there are at the end of our songs, because we'll be listening [back] to the song and spur on a new idea. And I will say or the guys will say, 'Scroll to the end — speed to the end of the song,' and then [we] put the new idea at the end of the song.
Once the whole record's done, that's when we go back and find all those pieces. So, at some point, we're going to go back with this record and see all the half-songs that are there and see what we have. And maybe we'll end up discovering some new songs that are left over from the sessions."

Mustaine later clarified that, should the band release such material in the future, it would be from sessions they've already recorded. "We have these portions of material that are at the end of several tracks over the various records," he said. "We can go back and see if there's anything there, because fuck, if there's, like, half of 'Holy Wars' and a half of 'Black Friday' there, I'm going to release that. But as far as the studio is concerned, my hand… that lump in the middle of my hand, it's getting worse, and eventually, that's going to be an impasse. When that date comes, I'm going to get the surgery, and either it's going to work or it's not going to work. And if it doesn't work, then I had a fucking great run."

In August of 2025, Mustaine announced that MEGADETH's self-titled 17th studio album — which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in the United States upon its release in early 2026, and also topped the charts in 10 other countries around the globe — would be the band's last. He credited his decision to retire to a medical condition called Dupuytren contracture, which — according to the Mayo Clinic — causes one or more fingers to bend toward the palm of the hand. The affected fingers can't straighten completely. While treatments can relieve symptoms and slow how quickly the condition gets worse, there is no cure for Dupuytren contracture.

During a December 2025 interview with Spain's MariskalRockTV, Mustaine explained that he didn't want to have surgery until after completing the band's global farewell tour. "I'm gonna wait for that until I'm ready to try it, because if I try it now and I'm 95 percent, and I do a surgery and it sets me back, that would've been a bad decision," he said. "If I wait until my hands are causing a problem and I try it and it doesn't work, well, then I've toured everywhere, I've said farewell to everybody and I'm not leaving stuff unsaid or unfinished."

Mustaine told Kerrang! magazine in late 2025 that MEGADETH's farewell run of shows could last a long time. "We're easily talking about touring for another three to five years," he said. "And if we're going to be doing it for that long then, shit, I'll be looking at the birthday I don't even want to think about," he added, referencing the fact that he will turn 70 in 2031.

As someone who overcame addiction to drugs and alcohol and beat throat cancer, Mustaine added: "I'm not caught up in longevity and stuff like that, and being one of those guys who can play until he's in his 80s. I have to remember that people live and they die. And I need to take good care of myself."

"Megadeth" was released on January 23, 2026. The follow-up to 2022's "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!" was made available via Mustaine's Tradecraft imprint on Frontiers Label Group's new BLKIIBLK label.

The now-65-year-old MEGADETH guitarist/vocalist revealed his cancer battle in June 2019 on social media, saying the doctors had given him a 90 percent chance of beating the illness.

Dave later said that he beat cancer after 51 radiation treatments and nine chemotherapy sessions. He returned to the stage in early 2020 — weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic derailed touring for months.