On a late Monday afternoon, Dave Mustaine is feeling good at his Tennessee home. His neighbors’ cows are mooing at each other — loudly — and when he gets on the phone with Rolling Stone, he reports, “I’m just dealing with life.”

In May, the Megadeth frontman was diagnosed with cancer and needed to step away from the spotlight. The band subsequently canceled all of its 2019 touring plans, including an appearance on their own MegaCruise, and the outspoken Mustaine stayed uncharacteristically quiet for most of the year. Still, doctors told Mustaine upon his diagnosis that they hoped for a 90 percent success rate.

In September, he released a statement saying he was almost done with his final round of treatment and that his physicians remained positive. Now that he has been through what he says was the worst of it and will be reuniting with his Megadeth bandmates for their upcoming winter trek through Europe with Five Finger Death Punch, he’s ready to tell his story.

“I’m on the other side of the majority of the treatment, and I feel really strong,” he says. “After the radiation, the guy said all of my test results looked amazing. ‘You look like you’re in a stage 1 and you’re supposed to be in stage 3 right now.’ And then the oncologist said the same thing: ‘You look really strong.’ So we kept moving through the process.”

Mustaine says he’s had two bad days since his diagnosis. And even though he’s not officially in remission, he recently finished the necessary treatment and has started rehabilitation. Mustaine’s ordeal made the band pause work on their new album (they’re planning on releasing a few new songs in advance of the tour), but at the moment he’s most looking forward to getting back on the road. “I’m so excited,” he says of the upcoming tour, “and I can’t wait to fire up my guitars.”

But that should be no surprise, coming from the man who wrote vicious declarations of perseverance like “Peace Sells,” “Victory,” and “Holy Wars … the Punishment Due.” “I figured, I’m not gonna let this beat me,” he says without a hint of worry in his voice. “I’m not gonna let this even scare me.”