Hello Our Names Are...
Chuck and Gary
Record & CD
Collectors Show
The Midwest's Largest Record Show
O
n paper, it looked like a brilliant
idea — the recent comprehensive
"Bay Strikes Back" month-long
tour of Europe, featuring Bay Area thrash-
metal stalwarts Testament, Exodus, and
Death Angel. It was just the timing — Feb.
6 to March 11 — that proved a bit unfortu-
nate. It happened to coincide with the
appearance of the deadly coronavirus
pandemic, just as it escalated its attack
overseas. “So we were on tour there just
watching this whole thing unfold in front
of our eyes,” shudders Testament vocalist
Chuck Billy, 57. “Three and a half weeks
into our five-week tour, we canceled Italy
and watched the news as things unrav-
was sick. And I was fine that day, Friday
the 13th. But by the morning of the 14th, I
woke up and I was a mess. So I called our
personal doctor at Kaiser to see what we
needed to do, and they said, “Well if you
don’t have symptoms, we really can’t test
you.” So we thought, “Great.” But two
days later, we called back and said, “Well,
now we ARE sick, and this is the same sit-
uation that’s going around with the ten of
us that are sick from a traveling party
across Europe. And we all have the same
symptoms. And that’s when we sat and
waited. They didn’t even medicate us —
they just tested us and said, “If you have a
problem breathing, go ahead and call 911
Testament
SUNDAY • NOV 20
8:45AM - 4PM
VINYL
& CD’s
BECAUSE OF ILLINOIS STAY - AT- HOME ORDERS
OUR MAY SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELED
WE ARE HOPING TO SEE YOU AT OUR JULY SHOW - STAY SAFE
LP'S •
45'S • 12"SINGLES
Rock • Alternative • Jazz • Soul
Plus, an expanded Metal selection.
BEST WESTERN
CHICAGO - HILLSIDE
4400 FRONTAGE ROAD
HILLSIDE, IL
I-290 Eisenhower Expy -Wolf/Mannheim Exit
Dealers Tables $45.00
Admission
$3.00
Early Bird Customers: $10.00
5.30am
Early Bird Time: 6:30am
For Information Call 630-898-1533 - Evenings or:
Visit www.chicagorecordcollectors.com
We’re on Facebook under Chicagoland Record & CD Collectors Show
6
illinoisentertainer.com may
2020
eled, and there were suddenly new recom-
mendations for crowd capacity at events
and gatherings. And the first thing that
crossed my mind was, ‘Are we gonna be
able to get home?’”
He was right to worry. The entourage
barely made it back on March 12. By the
time it touched down in San Francisco, ten
members had been infected with COVID-
19, including Billy, his tour-manager, his
wife Tiffany, and Exodus guitarist Gary
Holt. Everyone survived, however, and
they’re happy to share their stories with IE
readers below.
IE: What happened after Italy?
CHUCK BILLY: The last show was in
Hanover, Germany, and the night before,
right before doors, the promoter had told
us that the next night in Germany had
been canceled because of the virus. They
had also recommended that they shut the
tour down that very night. But the pro-
moter said, “Everybody’s here, the doors
are open, just go ahead with it.” So we got
to play the last show of the tour in
Belgium. And as we were waking up on
the morning of March 12 — because we all
had flights out at 6 a.m. — we woke up to,
“Hey — your president has just declared a
travel ban, starting tomorrow!” And we
were like, “Oh, great. Get us out of here!
We’ve gotta get HOME!” And once we got
on that plane, we were all feeling tired. I
mean, it was a five-week tour, you’re
burned out, you’re naturally tired. So we
just thought, “Oh, we’re just tired.” And
my wife was tired. But we got home, and
by the next morning, she woke up and she
and we’ll bring you back in. Besides that,
go home, isolate yourself.” And that was
about it. And I’m not a cigarette smoker,
either. I only smoke weed when I’m at
home, but never when we go on tour.
IE: And you’re a cancer survivor, too. Not
an easy condition to find yourself in.
CB: No. And when we heard that Will
(Carroll, drummer) from Death Angel
went to the hospital and got a ventilator,
this all got even more serious. Because we
were all short of breath, too, that was my
problem — I just couldn’t breathe. I’d
have problems just going from the bed to
the bathroom and back — I’d be really out
of breath. Then it got scary once we heard
about Will — we all had this mental image
of the shutdown of our bodies, like “I can’t
breathe, either!” And a kind of panic set
in. So then we all just took it a day at a
time. Will was on a ventilator for two
weeks, and now he’s okay, thank God. But
we were all very worried because people
who go on a ventilator don’t always make
it through. Then we heard, “He’s awake!”
And we thought, “Thank God.” He came
out of it, and that was awesome.
IE: How did your lungs feel?
CB: My chest hurt ‘cause it was so sore.
My body and bones were aching so much
and my chest was tight. Everything was
aching. And I usually don’t get sick that
much, and when I’d get sick it would just
be for a day. But this one, I just could not
shake for about two and a half weeks. One
day I’d feel good and be up and about and
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