DAVE MUSTAINE Teases 'F***ing Massive' MEGADETH Announcement: 'It's Out Of This World'

In a new interview with Turkey's Apaçık Radyo, MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine spoke about the band's plans for the coming months. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We've got an announcement we're making [in July] that is so fucking massive. It's out of this world. Let me say it like that. I gave you a clue right there. It's out of this world… We got another Megacruise we're starting to work on, something we're gonna announce, Peace Sails cruise. And that's gonna be — unlike the last time, where I got sick and I couldn't go, I'm going to be on that one."

Reflecting on the fact that he was forced to miss the inaugural Megacruise, which took place October 13-18, 2019, Dave said: "That was a real shame for me, because we had booked it, all the bands, and everybody had bought their tickets, and everybody was ready to go, and I got really sick. That was the beginning of the evidence that I was developing [throat] cancer. And so I had to stay home."

Mustaine also talked the "gnarly" treatment he underwent after he was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma at the back of his tongue in 2019. He said: "I've been in remission with the cancer now since [early 2020]… I'm in remission, and I'm really happy about that. I work really hard at it. Sometimes it's a bear. It's sometimes really difficult to deal with the side effects, because the radiation and the chemotherapy that I did, it was all around my jaw, so all my teeth have been damaged. And I have to go to great lengths to protect my teeth. I had a tooth break on the tour. I had a tooth in the front break. I had a tooth up here break last tour. A tooth in the back here just completely break off and. I have to have them put back in all the time. That's the thing. Normal teeth, when they fall out, you can put them back in if there's enough teeth left. But implants are the next step, and the side effect of the radiation has caused me to need to get implants. But you know what? I still can talk and I can still sing, and a lot of people who get tongue cancer can't even talk. So I thank God for that, and I thank my doctors and my family."

He continued: "We made 'The Sick, The Dying…And The Dead!' record while I was going through all the cancer treatment, and we have a book coming out called 'In My Darkest Hour' about my journey through cancer. And it was very emotional. I read back through the book and saw what a lot of the people that I asked to participate in there said, the ones that witnessed everything, the ones that were there helping me through it. And there were some really harrowing days. There were some really ugly moments. I didn't do terrible, but there were several really bad days. And I'm just grateful I got through it."

After the interviewer noted that he always sees Mustaine as 'a person who reinvents" himself, whether it's his battle with cancer or MEGADETH's ongoing "farewell" tour, Dave said: "Cancer is different for all people. That's the one thing I learned, without a doubt. Because a lot of people use their cancer treatment as a weapon against people around them. I travel with a person on my staff that helps me with the medication I have to take for my aftercare. And every time we go through a security checkpoint, I have to say to the security person, 'I have a safe that has the medicine in it,' and I have to tell them I'm a cancer survivor. I don't say 'I had cancer' or 'I'm a cancer patient.' I have to remind myself I'm a survivor. And I've survived a lot of stuff, and I'm gonna keep surviving. And I think it would be a glorious day if, when this tour, when everything winds down and I make the decision to put my hand in the hands of another person, that it works."

Last November, Mustaine told Metal Hammer magazine that he wanted the final concert of MEGADETH's farewell tour to take place in space. "I hope we'll be playing up in space," he said. "I think that will be a really fitting climax. And I'm not talking about on the side of a vomit comet. A gig on the moon, a full moon landing, that would be cool."

Referencing the fact that pop superstar Katy Perry, "Star Trek" actor William Shatner and British billionaire Richard Branson have all made trips into space in recent years, Dave added: "I saw they sent up a bunch of celebrities into space and I thought 'Well, if them, why not me?', you know? I'm just watching how that all progresses. I know Elon Musk and Richard Branson were working on interstellar travel. I think people are going to be travelling to space a lot sooner than you think."

Asked by Metal Hammer if he was joking about the idea of actually playing a gig in outer space, Dave said: "People already travel over 40,000 feet altitude, and when you get to that kind of atmosphere you're basically already in space. So I do think it's going to happen. The question is, are people going to be able to inhabit the moon?"

"In My Darkest Hour" will arrive on September 8, 2026 via Grand Central Publishing's recently launched Da Capo imprint.

The Da Capo imprint, which is focused on publishing books about music, is a reincarnation of Da Capo Press, the longtime music publisher acquired as part of Hachette Book Group's 2016 acquisition of the Perseus Book Group, which was folded into Hachette Books in 2018. The Hachette Books imprint was dissolved in 2024 as part of restructuring efforts at Hachette Book Group.

"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. "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."

"'In My Darkest Hour' is Dave Mustaine at his most revealing, vulnerable, and true," Ben Schafer, Da Capo's executive editor, said. "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."

"In My Darkest Hour" was co-written by The New York Times journalist Joe Layden, who previously worked with Mustaine on his "Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir" autobiography and on original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley's "No Regrets: A Rock 'N' Roll Memoir". Layden also authored "The Last Great Fight" about what is considered by many to be the biggest upset in the history of boxing: James "Buster" Douglas's tenth-round knockout win over Mike Tyson in 1990.

"Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir", which came out in August 2010, landed at position No. 15 on The New York Times "Hardcover Nonfiction" best sellers list. The book was released in the U.S. via HarperCollins's It Books imprint (focusing on pop culture, sports, style and content derived from the Internet). The U.K. edition, "Mustaine: A Life In Metal", hit bookstores in the U.K. in September 2010.

In September 2020, Mustaine released his second book, "Rust In Peace: The Inside Story Of The Megadeth Masterpiece" (formerly "Building The Perfect Beast"),via Hachette Books. "Rust In Peace: The Inside Story Of The Megadeth Masterpiece" detailed the making of MEGADETH's iconic "Rust In Peace" album, which was released in 1990.

The now-64-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.

In 2014, five years before his cancer diagnosis, Mustaine and his family relocated to Tennessee, in part, because his daughter Electra wanted to pursue a singing career. Electra now helps run the visionary wine brand House Of Mustaine which uniquely blends music, culture, and fine winemaking.