Tool and Puscifer frontman Maynard James Keenan revealed that he ended up in the emergency room last fall after contracting COVID-19 for a second time. The artist discussed his condition alongside his recent work with Puscifer during an appearance on the STROMBO Show on Apple Music Hits.

Keenan stated that he contracted COVID-19 a second time in mid-November 2020 and ended up in the hospital again by early December. He spoke about the difficulties of having COVID-19, as many other people were struggling to have beds and ventilators. He eventually decided to treat the symptoms at home after doctors equipped him with some supplies.

“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.’ So, you’re just treating symptoms at that point,” Keenan was quoted in a press release. “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 f*** in.”

Last October Keenan revealed that he continues to suffer lung damage as a result of his first bout of COVID-19, which he was diagnosed with back in February. According to a mxdwn interview with Puscifer’s Carina Round, Keenan already recorded his vocals before he began work on the group’s 2020 release Existential Reckoning.

Puscifer held a COVID-19 safe live stream in Arcosanti, Arizona last fall and released video performances of “Bedlamite” and “Fake Affront” following the show.

Photo Credit: Marv Watson