TESTAMENT's CHUCK BILLY: Beating Cancer 'Turned Me More Spiritual Instead Of Religious'

In a new interview with Scott Itter of Dr. Music, Chuck Billy, the frontman of San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal veterans TESTAMENT, spoke about his upcoming memoir, "Holding My Breath: The Two Testaments Of Chuck Billy", which is due on November 10, 2026 via Permuted Press. The 63-year-old singer, who was diagnosed with germ cell seminoma, a rare type of cancer, a quarter century ago, has been cancer-free for over two decades following chemotherapy and traditional Native American healing. Asked about his spirituality before and after his cancer diagnosis, Chuck said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I was raised Catholic, so I was raised religious — catechism, all that stuff through high school. My mother was very religious. So I would say I was just raised religious. That's what I knew. I didn't know anything else. I think being in the band and traveling the world and seeing other cultures and stuff, and then wanting to get into my native, more American roots at that time, it was a weird way it all happened. And I don't wanna give it all away, [having written about it] in the book, but just the way that happened for me to meet the medicine men was a real weird coincidence to start with. And from the first time, the first medicine man I met, I went into this strong mindset that, for me, it was mind over matter. Whatever I'm doing, I'm believing it's working. Whatever our goal was, I'm mentally thinking we're accomplishing something right now. And that's kind of the way I went into it. So after I experienced the whole Native [American] thing and just these unbelievable, mind-blowing things that I experienced, and the outcome and beating it, I could sit there and go, 'Okay, thank God, thank whatever.' But I think spirituality — it turned me more spiritual instead of religious, and I think over the years, it's been 20-something years, my house is covered with different gods from any faith, statues around my house. I don't have one god in my house. I have every form, because I'm a spiritual guy now."

Back in 2012, Chuck told Legendary Rock Interviews that his cancer diagnosis was an accidental discovery that ultimately saved his life.

"I had started smoking cigarettes at that time," he recalled. "I had been smoking for about two or three months and I was just walking up the stairs in my house and just huffing and puffing and thinking 'Man, these cigarettes are just killing me. I gotta stop smoking. I can't breathe.' That was the first thing I noticed. I think I was just really fortunate and blessed and had an angel looking down on me because I probably would have just kept right on smoking anyway and I was the kind of guy that never went to the doctor. I probably hadn't been to the doctor since my high school physical to play football. One day, totally out of the blue, a real estate agent knocked on my door and told me that she had somebody who wanted to buy my house. My house wasn't even for sale but she just had someone she was talking to who had told her that they wanted to buy my house. I told her I wasn't interested but just wondered how much she'd sell it for and when she told me how much she could sell it for I was, like, 'Well, okay, if you can sell it for that much than maybe I am interested.' [Laughs] So she did. She sold it and at that time I was playing with these guys in Antioch which was about an hour from my house and hangin out in this really nice little country town with not a lot going on out there. So when we sold our house, I told my wife, 'Hey, let's move out there. It's quiet, on a river. Let's go there.' So, the drummer I was working with there was a guy from SADUS and his wife worked at a hospital there and recommended a doctor and my wife and I decided to switch doctors and dentists and everything and meet them and all of us go get a physical. The doctor called back and everything was fine with my wife, but they wanted me to come in for a CT scan on my chest and further X-rays. That's how they found it. So it was kind of like a fluke situation. If that lady never knocked on my door to sell my house I probably would have died and never see it coming because I had a tumor in my chest that was the size of a squash. It was growing off of my heart and pushing on my lungs which is why I couldn't breath. I didn't have any space in there for my lungs to expand."

At the time, he underwent chemotherapy and, being a Native American, Chuck utilized traditional medicine, including seeking help from spiritual healers. A year into treatment and recovery, he was declared cancer-free in 2002.

According to a press release, "Holding My Breath: The Two Testaments Of Chuck Billy" is structured as two interlocking testaments, tracing the full arc of a life lived at maximum volume — and then something louder than any riff: the fight to stay alive. The Old Testament plunges readers into the explosive birth of Bay Area thrash metal, the formation of TESTAMENT, the rivalries, the brotherhood, and the reckless, glorious chaos of becoming one of the genre's most powerful voices. The New Testament is something rarer and more raw — a frontman at 38, blindsided by a devastating cancer diagnosis, drawing on his Native American and Mexican-American heritage, spiritual healers, visions, and the fierce love of a metal community. At the center of that community: the legendary 2001 "Thrash Of The Titans" benefit concert — one of the most galvanizing moments in heavy metal history — which rallied old rivals into brothers and helped ignite a genre revival while keeping Chuck Billy in the fight.

Co-written with Dave Erickson, "Holding My Breath" delivers the unfiltered insider story of thrash metal's rise alongside a deeply human account of mortality, miraculous recovery, cultural identity, and chosen family. It is, equally, a gift to lifelong TESTAMENT fans and to anyone who has ever faced the unthinkable — and refused to let go.

The book features a foreword by Rob Halford (JUDAS PRIEST) and an afterword by Randy Blythe (LAMB OF GOD) — two of metal's most revered voices bearing witness to Chuck Billy's enduring legacy.

Raised in a resilient Native American and Mexican-American family, Chuck forged his path through rebellion, raw talent, and unbreakable stubbornness — becoming the powerful voice behind one of thrash's most enduring bands.

Billy has been honored with a California State Assembly recognition for his positive influence on Native communities, was part of The Smithsonian's National Museum Of The American Indian's exhibition, "Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians In Popular Culture", and won "Best Music Video" at the American Indian Film Festival for "Native Blood".

For more information, and to pre-order, visit chuckbillybook.com.