Dave Mustaine has written about the people who reached out to him when his cancer diagnosis became public in 2019, and one of them was the man who had fired him from Metallica 36 years earlier. In an excerpt from his new autobiography “In My Darkest Hour”, published by Metal Hammer, the Megadeth singer names three musicians who called him.
Ozzy Osbourne, Paul Stanley of Kiss and James Hetfield. He dwelt particularly on Hetfield’s call, while making clear that he does not want it to sound as if cancer brought some “truce” between Megadeth and Metallica: “That battle was over years ago. But wounds leave scars even when they heal, so it would be off the mark to say we were close friends. We do have a shared history that will always be deep, I care about him and I know he cares about me.”
“Hearing from James shortly before I started treatment, when I was at a very low point, meant a lot to me,” he writes. “Drop the drama. Be human. And don’t do it for publicity or likes. Pick up the phone and call. Privately, one to one. That’s what James did.”
Metallica fired him in April 1983, before they recorded their debut. Mustaine still holds credits on four songs on “Kill ’Em All” and two on “Ride The Lightning”. The friction lasted for decades, though the two have shared a stage since, such as at the “Big Four” shows with Slayer and Anthrax in 2010 and 2011. Osbourne passed away in July 2025.
In the book he writes that back then he felt afraid and vulnerable, and that anyone fighting cancer who says otherwise “is talking out of their backside”. He asks people not to hesitate to reach out to anyone who is ill: “Cancer isn’t contagious. And we forgive you the awkwardness. Just be there. There is no wrong thing to say when you have made the effort to show up — there is only love, support and friendship.”
Mustaine says he had calmed down a lot compared with the man who wrote his first autobiography in 2010, and that he never asked himself “why me”: bad things happen more or less at random. The 2019 diagnosis, squamous cell carcinoma at the back of his tongue found during a routine dental check, made him more grateful: “I realised I couldn’t beat it on my own, that I was starting the hardest fight of my life and that I had an army at my side.”
“In My Darkest Hour” was released on 8 September 2026 in the US by Da Capo and comes out in Great Britain from Constable, written with journalist Joe Layden, who had also worked with him on “Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir” in 2010. The title comes from the song “In My Darkest Hour” from “So Far, So Good… So What!” (1988), which Mustaine has said he wrote when he learned of the death of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton.
The book arrives as Megadeth wrap up their farewell tour: their self-titled final album, released in January, became their first to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
See also: Dave Mustaine: “I hope God heals me” and Metallica: Blood donation centre in Las Vegas
Source: https://metal-stop.com/dave-mustaine-reveals-how-james-hetfield-supported-him-during-his-cancer-battle/
