MEGADETH Has Not Yet Begun Recording New Album: 'We're Just Composing' Right Now, Says KIKO LOUREIRO

MEGADETH guitarist Kiko Loureiro says that Dave Mustaine is "doing fine," less than a month after he publicly revealed that he is battling throat cancer.

The 57-year-old MEGADETH leader announced his cancer diagnosis on June 17 on social media. He said that he has already begun treatment as part of a plan that his doctors feel has a "90% success rate."

Loureiro spoke about Mustaine's health status during a video chat on Sunday (July 7) from Franklin, Tennessee where MEGADETH is in pre-production for its upcoming album.

"He's doing fine," Kiko said about Dave. "He's doing the treatment. But today is Sunday. We don't work [in the studio]. Yesterday, we kind of stayed together for an hour only. Every day, he's coming here and then we work — I don't know — a few hours, and then take a break, and he rests or [goes] and [does] something else, and then he comes back. So we might be working, like, five or six hours with Dave, and then a little bit more with the producer, with [Chris] Rakestraw. We're listening to the stuff we did and changing little things and sometimes even trying to write new ideas. We have a lot of ideas here, a lot of songs. So while Dave has energy, we're working.

"We're not recording yet, so we're just composing — creating ideas and taking the time before we go to the studio," Kiko explained. "And it depends on Dave's ability to sing, of course. But he's playing guitar, so we're still developing the songs and ideas. That's what we're doing without any other more specific plan, because every day we see what's happening."

Although most of MEGADETH's previously announced 2019 tour dates have been canceled as Mustaine undergoes treatment, the MEGADETH-curated Megacruise — which is set to take place October 13-19 — will still depart as scheduled, and the band will be a part of it in some form.

Kiko made his recording debut with MEGADETH on 2016's "Dystopia" album, whose title track was honored in the "Best Metal Performance" category at the 2017 Grammy Awards.

Mustaine and bassist David Ellefson are the two remaining original members of MEGADETH, which was formed in 1983, following Mustaine's dismissal from METALLICA.