The Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle is the latest musician to contract COVID-19, confirming his diagnosis is an ad-libbed acoustic “song”.

In the four-and-a-half-minute performance – partly sung, and partly delivered in frantically spoken explanations – Darnielle assured fans that he tested negative for the virus on the last date of The Mountain Goats’ three-show run in North Carolina (on December 18). 

The following day, however, the singer-songwriter noted that he felt unusually fatigued, so endeavoured to get tested via PCR. Unlike the rapid antigen tests he’d taken prior, that wound up giving him a positive diagnosis. Darnielle encouraged fans that attended the shows to get tested, and asked them on Twitter not to worry for his own wellbeing as he’s “vaxxed up and maxxed up”.

Take a look at Darnielle’s COVID song below:

Never ones to find themselves bound by circumstance, The Mountain Goats have kept exceptionally busy throughout the pandemic. They’ve released three studio albums since the first outbreak of COVID-19, first with ‘Songs For Pierre Chuvin’ in April 2020, then ‘Getting Into Knives’ that same October, and lastly ‘Dark In Here’ this past June.

Darnielle also announced back in August that his third novel, Devil House, will arrive in January 2022. According to a synopsis, the book follows a true crime writer named Gage Chandler who is offered a chance to move into what the locals call “The Devil House”, in which a briefly notorious pair of murders once occurred.

At the start of the year, The Mountain Goats appeared as musical guests on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, delivering a remote, in-studio performance of ‘Getting Into Knives’ cut ‘Get Famous’.