Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan has revealed that he contracted COVID-19 a second time.
During George Stroumboulopoulos’ Apple Music Hits show on Tuesday, Keenan said that he contracted COVID-19 in mid-November and had to go to the ER in December.
“I don’t know if I said anything online, but I had it twice,” Keenan said. “Ugly, ugly. Couldn’t breathe, couldn’t put two words together without going into a coughing fit.”
Keenan also disclosed that he decided not to stay in the hospital and instead treated his symptoms at home, as there were no ventilators available.
“It was also kind of progressing into pneumonia,” Keenan said. “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 discussed his first bout with COVID-19 in an interview with AZ Central in October 2020, stating that he had contracted it in February.
“I’m still dealing with the residual effects. But it was ugly. I survived it, but it wasn’t pretty,” Keenan told AZ Central. “I had to go through some major medications to undo the residual effects. Still coughing. There’s still lung damage.”
Keenan appeared on the show to discuss his band Puscifer’s most recent album, “Existential Reckoning,” and also touched on some existential topics, including the untimely deaths of many musicians.
“I think we almost need that new generation of — not responsible, because that’s boring — you know, crazy rockstar people, but not rockstar in the way it used to be where it was just self-destructive and you don’t make it past the age of 29,” Keenan said. “Somebody that can be a voice of reason but also a loose cannon in a way.”
Listen to the full episode here.