Earlier this week, we learned that Testament vocalist Chuck Billy, his wife Tiffany Billy, and several of the band's crew members have unfortunately all tested positive for coronavirus. Testament were on tour earlier this month with Exodus, Death Angel in Europe, as the outbreak was happening their. One of their shows, in Milan, Italy, had to be canceled due to the outbreak getting serious there.
In a new interview, Billy reveals that he and his wife are feeling better. Speaking to Canada's The Metal Voice, Billy talked went through all the steps to how he assumed he contracted the virus and how he got help:
"We just made it out of Europe on [March] 12th," Chuck recalled (hear audio below). "When we got home, of course, we were just chilling at home watching the news. At first, we were, like, 'You know what? Let's be proactive and call Kaiser [Permanente medical facilities] and the doctors and see where we can go get tested,' just to be proactive. When we first talked to medical people, they were, 'Well, if you don't have symptoms, you can't get tested.' We were, like, 'Well, here's what we've done for the last five and a half weeks. I think our exposure's pretty good.' So we were kind of fine at that point, and then as the days went by, we started feeling sick. And then by [that] Sunday, we decided, 'Let's call Kaiser again and tell 'em again what's going on,' and that's when they recommended us going in. And by that point, we had been in communication with other band members and other crew people and people from the other band that traveled with us. And within that first 24 hours, it seemed like a lot of us were sick with a lot of the same symtpoms. So right away, we felt, like, 'Oh, great. We must have something.'"
When asked what symptoms he experienced leading up to the diagnosis, Billy responded: "Well, for me, my body just ached — headaches, achy, wiped out. At first, I thought maybe it was just jet lag and traveling, but then it just came on like you knew you were sick — you just felt sick. And it didn't really let up. It was just a lot of not sleeping. I really didn't get the fever — just the coughing and the headaches and [I] just [felt] tired. And then we got to take our test on Sunday — we did the drive-through test, where you drive in the car, just roll down your window, they swab you and you're on your way. And it takes, like, seven days to get your results. So, from getting tested till getting the results, we started feeling better towards the next weekend — still not sick, but definitely that headache and the tiredness and achy and just feeling really bad was starting to go away.
"I noticed the first day or two, just walking to the bathroom and back, you were just huffing and puffing, and I was, like, 'Okay, I can feel it.' But it didn't get any worse. It wasn't bad enough. We just kind of chilled — we weren't over-exerting ourselves. And we really just took it easy [and] got a lot of rest."
We wish Chuck, his wife, and all the crew members all the best and a speedy recovery.
As of today, Worldometer reports there have been over 500,000 cases of the virus, and almost 24,000 deaths.
[via Blabbermouth]
