Megadeth's Dave Mustaine Says Hand Condition Is Ending Band's 4-Decade Run

Dave Mustaine, the founding guitarist and voice of Megadeth, says a progressive hand condition called Dupuytren's contracture is behind his decision to retire the band after more than four decades, and he's calling the group's 17th studio album and its tour their last. The Los Angeles-founded thrash metal pioneer says he plans to keep playing every night until the condition finally stops him.

Mustaine formed Megadeth in 1983 after being removed from Metallica, and he's now framing the band's self-titled 17th album, released in January 2026, and its accompanying tour as a farewell, according to the New York Post. Dupuytren's contracture causes one or more fingers to be pulled toward the palm, and Mustaine has taken to calling it his “Viking hand,” per the same report. He said he does not want to retire, but the condition — a gradual process in which tissue beneath the skin of the palm thickens and tightens — has left him no real choice.

A Condition With No Cure, and a History of Fighting Through Pain

Dupuytren's contracture is a progressive hand disorder caused by thickened palmar fascia tissue that forms tight cords pulling fingers inward, most commonly affecting men over 50 of Northern European descent, and it has no permanent cure, according to the Mayo Clinic. The disorder typically targets the ring and little fingers and can severely impair fine manual tasks like gripping a guitar neck.

This isn't the first time Mustaine's hands have threatened to end his career. In January 2002, he suffered severe radial neuropathy in his left arm after falling asleep over the back of a chair, leaving him temporarily unable to make a fist and forcing him to disband Megadeth, as detailed by Ultimate Guitar. He underwent 17 months of physical therapy and electrical shock treatments to regain function before reforming the band in 2004.

Mustaine also battled stage-three throat cancer, diagnosed in June 2019. He underwent more than 50 rounds of radiation and chemotherapy, per the Post, before announcing he was 100% cancer-free that October, according to uDiscoverMusic. He's now in complete remission.

A New Memoir Chronicles the Fight, With Help From Family and an Old Rival

Mustaine released his third book, In My Darkest Hour, on Monday, a memoir that chronicles his 2019 throat cancer battle and includes chapters written by his wife and two children. In the book, Mustaine says he received support from Metallica singer James Hetfield during his health struggles, a notable detail given the bitter history between Mustaine and the band that fired him in 1983.

That history runs deeper than most fans realize. Despite his 1983 dismissal prior to Metallica's debut album, Mustaine retains official co-writing credits on four songs from Kill 'Em All and two songs from 1984's Ride the Lightning, according to Wikipedia. Mustaine co-wrote the title track Ride the Lightning while still with Metallica, before Megadeth existed.

Closing the Circle With a Metallica Cover

Fittingly, Megadeth has recorded a cover of Ride the Lightning for its farewell run, speeding up the tempo and changing the solo and drum parts. Mustaine said covering the song felt like closing the circle, and the band has received a good response from fans, though Megadeth has not heard whether Metallica's camp likes the reworked version.

Mustaine also revisited another piece of his catalog's history: Peace Sells, whose bass riff he wrote after creating the part in a rehearsal room in Vernon, California. The song was used as MTV News theme music for decades, but Mustaine said the network cut off the track before he would be paid for it. He said he holds no hard feelings about the payment dispute, adding that legal battles do not produce winners.

A Chart-Topping Farewell in Exposition Park

The commercial timing of the retirement is notable: Megadeth's self-titled 17th album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 upon its January 2026 release, the band's highest chart position in its four-decade history, surpassing the No. 2 peak of 1992's Countdown to Extinction, according to Wikipedia. Across its career, Megadeth has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, notched seven top-10 Billboard 200 entries, and earned 13 Grammy nominations, winning Best Metal Performance in 2017 for the title track of Dystopia after 12 prior nominations without a win, per the band's official website.

Megadeth will play its final Los Angeles hometown shows at BMO Stadium on September 25 and 27, joining Anthrax as part of Iron Maiden's 50th-anniversary world tour, as Hoodline previously reported. The 24,000-capacity open-air venue in Exposition Park opened in 2018 as the first open-air stadium built in L.A. since Dodger Stadium in 1962, standing on the former site of the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Megadeth is recognized alongside Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax as one of the “Big Four” thrash metal bands that pioneered and commercialized extreme metal in the 1980s.

To promote his memoir, Mustaine launched a three-city U.S. book tour in September featuring fan Q&A sessions and meet-and-greets in New York, Boston, and Manassas, Virginia, timed to align with Megadeth's concert schedule, according to Guitar.com. Just how much longer Dupuytren's contracture will allow him to play remains uncertain, since the condition is progressive and has no permanent cure — but for now, Mustaine says he intends to keep playing every night until it stops him.