Tool’s Maynard James Keenan: I’ve had Covid twice

Maynard James Keenan has revealed that he contracted Covid for the second time in less than a year.

The Tool and Puscifer singer told Apple Music Hits’ George Stroumboulopoulos that he ended up in hospital in December 2020 after his second bout of the virus.

“I don’t know if I said anything online, but I had it twice,” said Keenan of his experience. “Ugly, ugly. Couldn’t breathe. I could barely put two words together without going into a coughing fit that, you know? It ended up kind of also progressing into pneumonia. 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, so what do you want to do?’ I’m like, ‘Well, I need to breathe and I need to sleep.’”

Keenan told Stroumboulopoulos that he decided to treat his symptoms at home.

“There’s nothing you can do other than treat the symptom, so for a real cough medicine, not the crap over-the-counter and then like an inhaler, and some antibiotics to fight the pneumonia and strap the fuck in.”

Keenan has previously said that he initially contracted Covid in early 2020. In October, he revealed that he was still dealing with the effects of the virus.

“I survived it, but it wasn’t pretty,” he told AZ Central. “I had to go through some major medications to undo the residual effects. Still coughing. There’s still lung damage.”

In another interview with The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Keenan poured scorn on Covid deniers and conspiracy theorists.

“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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