Former Exodus Singer Rob Dukes Had COVID: Sickest I've Ever Been

Former Exodus vocalist Rob Dukes has shared that he contracted coronavirus a number of weeks ago, leaving the singer "the sickest I’ve ever been in my life.”

Thankfully, Dukes has recovered from the virus, much like longtime Exodus guitarist Gary Holt, Testament vocalist Chuck Billy and Death Angel drummer Will Carroll. Bay Area thrash proved to be stronger than COVID-19, but the gravity of the illness — which Dukes believes he contracted at an Overkill show — weighs heavily on the singer.

“I pretty much ended up in the hospital, but only for 12 hours. And then I got quarantined for two weeks at home and was on steroids and a bunch of different other drugs to try to keep me from getting pneumonia,” Dukes tells the Talking Metal podcast. “So that’s what I did. I stayed home for a couple of weeks. I had really bad bronchitis. I was coughing so much that it hurt my chest and my throat was all tore up — I was coughing blood. I couldn’t sleep — achy, feverish for the first week. And then I just kept drinking a ton of fucking water — that’s kind of what I did; I was drinking a ton of water. And it was really hard to eat. But then, as soon as I got better, I fucking went on a fucking tear. I probably put on 10 pounds since then.” [Laughs]

“At one point, I was in the shower, and I had to go lay down. I was, like, ‘All right. I’m done.’ I took a cold shower to try to cool my body off, and then I just went and lay in bed. And then another time, I was laying on a couch… I had my wireless headset thing in the car. And I was, like, ‘Oh, let me go grab that.’ And I just walked to my car, which is probably 50 feet. And by the time I got to my car and got back, I had to go lay down for an hour, ’cause I was just so exhausted. It was brutal, man.”

“What this COVID-19 does is it gets in your lungs, and it basically suffocates people to death. It must be a miserable way to die. ‘Cause not being able to take a full breath and being out of breath just walking 20 feet, or 30 feet, was fucking brutal … I’ve been sick a bunch of times, man. This was the sickest I’ve ever been in my life. It was completely debilitating.” [via Blabbermouth]

A public health expert has predicted that live concerts may not return until fall of 2021. For best practices in stopping the spread of coronavirus, visit the World Health Organization’s website.

Hear Rob Dukes on the Talking Metal Podcast

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