Maynard James Keenan opens up about his struggles with the killer coronavirus, claiming he came down with the Covid-19 twice in the past ten months last year.
- February 5, 2021
AceShowbiz - Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan contracted COVID-19 twice in the past 10 months.
The rocker fell ill before the global pandemic kicked in back in March (20), and later revealed he fought a severe strain of the virus, which has left him with permanent lung damage.
However, in an interview on George Stroumboulopoulos' "Apple Music Hits" show on Tuesday (02Feb21), Keenan admitted that his bout of the coronavirus wasn't his only time having Covid.
"I don't know if I said anything online, but I had it twice," he said. "Ugly, ugly. Couldn't breathe, couldn't put two words together without going into a coughing fit."
The 56-year-old musician added that while he was hospitalised with the virus, he didn't stay there long as there were no ventilators available.
"It was also kind of progressing into pneumonia," he continued. "So if I stayed in the hospital, they said, 'Okay, we can keep you here, but you're fighting 12 other people for a bed and a ventilator we don't have.' "
Keenan added that he is still suffering "residual effects" from his battle with COVID-19, explaining, "Every other day, I'll have a coughing fit for, you know, for 10 minutes, coughing up stuff, so I have lung damage from it still. I'm still feeling residual effects."
Last year, Maynard James Keenan and his bandmates decided to call off their North American tour due to the pandemic. They offered fans full refunds as they explained, "We could continue to postpone or reschedule dates for some time into 2021 but ethically, we do not think this is the right course of action. In our opinion, tying up our fans' money for months, if not a full year, is unfair."
