Tool released their long-awaited new album Fear Inoculum in the summer of 2019, but their touring plans got cut short by the pandemic. Like a non-insignificant amount of people around the world, Maynard James Keenen had to deal with the coronavirus, which he contracted in February but only just publicly revealed in a recent interview.
Keenan was speaking with the Arizona Republic about dealing with his band’s plans being thrown off by the pandemic when he mentioned off-hand that he had COVID-19, saying, “I was still recovering from having gotten COVID at the end of February. I’m still dealing with the residual effects. But it was ugly. I survived it, but it wasn’t pretty. So I definitely had to deal with that.”
When the interviewer expressed surprise at that revelation, Keenan responded, “I kind of didn’t want to run around screaming it. But it’s real. And there’s after-effects. I had to go through some major medications to undo the residual effects. Still coughing. There’s still lung damage.”
He was then asked if he was feeling OK now, and Keenan revealed that he is still dealing with the effects of the virus, well over half a year later: “Well no. I still have the cough. Every other day, I have these coughing fits because my lungs are still damaged at the tips. And I just got over the inflammation that was going on with my wrist and hands. I had an autoimmune attack on my system in the form of, like, a rheumatoid arthritis. Basically, from what I understand, it attacks weird spots and it’s random. So that’s what I got. That was my prize.”
Check out the full interview here.