Chuck Billy Chastises Will Carroll for Possibly Having Spread the Coronavirus
As of right now, the most infamous story about metal musicians contracting COVID-19 comes from a European tour with Testament, Exodus, and Death Angel, which wound down just as the coronavirus pandemic was heating up. Multiple participants in that trek came home with the virus, include Testament frontman Chuck Billy and bassist Steve DiGiorgio, Exodus guitarist Gary Holt, and, most notably, Death Angel drummer Will Carroll, who became so ill that he was put on a ventilator and fell into a coma for twelve days.
Last month, Carroll told Decibel that he became sick near the end of the tour:
“Near the end of the tour, a couple of the guys were really sick. I must have caught it from them because the last three or four nights of the tour I knew I had it. I felt terrible.”
Now, in a new interview with Hot Metal, Billy has said that Carroll “should have said something” when he knew he was ill, because by not saying so, he may have spread the virus to others on the tour. Asked if he knew that Carroll or anyone in Death Angel was sick during the tour, Billy replied:
“No. Because it was the last three days, I think he said, of the tour [that he first started feeling sick]. But no, he didn’t say he was sick or had it or thought he had it, but, you know, I think he should have said something. Unfortunately, I don’t think it was cool… I mean, he could have got stuck in Europe for a long time. With his problems, he could have been on a ventilator in Europe. But, again, to think that he was ill, just to get on that plane and spread it himself if he was contagious, that’s kind of… a little wrong.”
Billy was then asked if he knew how he’d contracted the coronavirus, to which the singer responded:
“I don’t. But being the band, we are amongst ourselves — the three bands. We really didn’t go and walk through the crowds or nothing. So we were isolated to ourselves. So if Will did get us sick, maybe it was that last hug on stage, that last show when Will was around us all. I don’t know — if he thought he was really ill at that point. Because we didn’t have a lot of public interaction with each other — it was mostly just all three bands and crews. So, we don’t know. It could have been that last night. Or it could have been at the airport, because some of the people on the bus didn’t get sick, who slept in the same areas with us and were really close to us. So maybe we got it at the airport that last night. Maybe we got it on the plane coming home. We just don’t know. But we do know that we all came down [with it] around the same time. I think if Will was sick first, if they were sick first, maybe they must have gave it to us — I don’t know — but the rest of our band and crew started feeling it, like, a day after we got home.”
Well… it’s hard to deny that Billy has a point. Still, given that Carroll became so much sicker than Billy or Holt or anyone else on the tour, hopefully the two can let bygones be bygones and put this behind them. Life’s too short, y’know?
[via Lambgoat]
