The Chuck Billy memoir Holding My Breath: The Two Testaments of Chuck Billy is out today, Nov. 10, from Permuted Press. The Testament frontman tells his story in two parts — the rise of Bay Area thrash and the cancer fight that nearly ended it — and he is marking the release with a Southern California book party tonight in Seal Beach, plus a second event Nov. 14 in Dublin, Calif. There is no San Diego date. The book is at chuckbillybook.com.
What’s in the Chuck Billy Memoir
Co-written with Dave Erickson, the Chuck Billy memoir is structured as two interlocking testaments. The Old Testament covers the birth of Bay Area thrash, the formation of Testament, the rivalries, the brotherhood, and the chaos of becoming one of the genre’s most powerful voices. The New Testament picks up at 38, when a cancer diagnosis blindsided him, and follows the fight through his Native American and Mexican-American heritage, spiritual healers, visions, and the metal community that refused to let him go.
At the center of that community, the announcement says, was Thrash of the Titans, the benefit that rallied old rivals and helped keep Billy in the fight. SDMETAL has already traced that history in our Heal As One: Dennis Pepa benefit coverage. Billy beat cancer in 2001 and kept going; Testament’s fourteenth studio album, covered here as Testament Para Bellum, arrived in 2025.
“This book is about two versions of me that are really just one story,” Billy says in the announcement. “The guy who thought he was invincible, and the guy who learned how fragile life really is.”
The book carries a foreword by Rob Halford of Judas Priest and an afterword by Randy Blythe of Lamb of God. The release also notes a California State Assembly recognition for Billy’s work with Native communities, his inclusion in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian exhibition “Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians In Popular Culture,” and a Best Music Video win at the American Indian Film Festival for “Native Blood.”
Seal Beach Tonight, Dublin on Nov. 14
To mark the Chuck Billy memoir release, two California events are on the calendar. Tonight, Nov. 10, from 7 to 9 p.m., a book-release party is set for the Affliction HQ Store, 1799 Apollo Ct, Seal Beach. Jose Mangin, SiriusXM’s Metal Ambassador, is hosting, and comedian Brian Posehn is presenting a Q&A.
The second date is Saturday, Nov. 14, from 2 to 6 p.m., at The Back Lounge, 7138 Village Parkway, Dublin, Calif., with hosts Phil and Marta Demmel and Posehn again on the bill. Ticket prices, entry rules, and whether books will be sold on site were not listed in the announcement.
A TalkShopLive conversation with Billy aired Nov. 9, the night before the Chuck Billy memoir street date; that stream is already over.
