Chuck Billy, vocalist for Testament , shared more details about his COVID-19 diagnosis and symptoms with the Canadian website The Metal Voice .
“When we got home, of course, we were just relaxing at home watching the news. At first, we thought, ‘You know what? Let’s be proactive and call Kaiser [Permanent Medical Facility] and the doctors and see where we can get tested,’ just to be proactive. When we first talked to doctors, they said, ‘Well, if you don’t have symptoms, you can’t get tested.’ We thought, ‘Well, here’s what we’ve done for the last five and a half weeks. I guess our exposure is pretty good.’ So we were doing pretty well up to that point, and as the days went by, we started getting sick.”
That Sunday, we decided, 'Let's call Kaiser again and tell him again what's going on,' and that's when they recommended we proceed. And by that point, we were in communication with other band members and other crew members and people from the other band that was traveling with us. And in the first 24 hours, it seemed like many of us were sick with many of the same symptoms. So, immediately, we felt, 'Oh, great. We must have something,'” Chuck recounted, describing the first few days after returning from their European tour with Exodus and Death Angel , whose drummer, Will Carroll , is currently in the ICU due to COVID-19.
Regarding the symptoms of the illness, Billy recounted, “Well, for me, my body ached – headaches, aches, knocked down. At first, I thought maybe it was just jet lag and from the travel, but then came this thing like you know you’re sick – you just feel sick. And it didn’t really go away. It was just a lot of not sleeping. I didn’t really have a fever – just the cough and the headaches and [I] just felt tired. And then we got tested on Sunday – we did the drive-thru test, where you drive the car, just roll down the window, they wipe you and you get out. And it takes, like, about seven days to get your results. So, from the test to getting the results, we started to feel better the following weekend – still not sick, but definitely that headache, the tiredness, the aches and pains and the feeling of being really unwell, was starting to go away.”
However, as many report regarding the symptoms of the virus, it can vary from person to person, depending on their health, and this is what the musician reinforced in his account, “My wife and I feel we are in great health. We immediately isolated ourselves, quarantined ourselves, and simply didn't go out. And we are feeling better as the days go by. I think today was probably our most active day. We are excited, trying to get back and do some things, where before, we were just switched off, stuck on the couch, kind of just existing.”
We hope Chuck Billy and his wife continue to get better and better!
