Maynard James Keenan recently revealed that he contracted COVID-19 in February, and that he still has lingering effects months later. Apparently, there are some who’ve questioned the Tool singer’s story, leading him to deliver a blunt message to his doubters.
After disclosing his coronavirus battle to the Arizona Republic earlier this month, Keenan offered a more detailed account during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast this week. The singer confirmed that he contracted COVID-19 while on tour of Australia and New Zealand in late February.
“I’m in Australia, we went out to dinner… and immediately food didn’t taste right, but this is now, this is all hindsight, right — I didn’t know at the time,” explained Keenan. “We didn’t know that these are the things you’re looking for, like immediately … I had to get on an international flight the next morning, fly to New Zealand.”
He continued, “So we got there, I was, like, four days in the hotel, ’cause we have four days off before the shows. So I was just drinking water, hot showers, taking care of myself, hot tea, just trying to get through it and it sucked. But you didn’t know yet … how bad this thing could have been. If I’d have known how bad it could have been, I would have been freaking out.”
As he mentioned in the previous interview, Keenan is still dealing with lung problems and other COVID-related ailments to this day. “Whatever cough I got in New Zealand, like every other day, I’ll have a coughing fit for, you know, for 10 minutes, coughing up stuff, so I have lung damage from from it still.”
Later on in the podcast, Keenan delivered a pointed message to conspiracy theorists who think he might be making up his story. “I’m still feeling residual effects of [COVID-19],” said Keenan. “I feel like there’s a bunch of people that … maybe I didn’t almost die, but I have friends who almost died. It was ugly. And then you have people going … apparently I’m being paid to say this. Eat a dick, dude.”
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When Rogan mentioned that “fatso Trump” seemed to miraculously recover from COVID-19 in a couple of days, and that the president “never looked better,” Keenan responded, “Still a douchebag!”
Elsewhere in the interview, Keenan provided more details on his band Puscifer’s upcoming streaming concert, offered his thoughts on the presidential election, and more. Watch the entire podcast below, and pick up Puscifer’s forthcoming album, Existential Reckoning, here.
Editor’s Note: Stay safe by picking up one of our custom face masks. A portion of the proceeds will benefit MusiCares’ COVID-19 Artist Relief fund supporting independent musicians.
