Ted Nugent has opened up on his recent battle with COVID-19, saying he’s “never been so scared in all my life”.

Nugent announced earlier this month that he had contracted the virus, before denying that he had previously called coronavirus a hoax. The controversial right-wing singer has attracted criticism for his views on the ongoing pandemic over the last year.

Reflecting on his experience with COVID in a new edition of his Ted Nugent’s Spirit Campfire show, he said: “I never am a sympathy guy. I’m a tough guy. I’d rather err on the side of ‘tough guy.’ Five [or] six days ago, it was really scary. I didn’t think I was gonna make it. I literally couldn’t function for about 20 hours, and then they came and they rescued me… I’ve never been so scared in all my life.

“I’ve had the flu three or four times in my life,” he continued. “I’m in bed and I’m giving birth to swampage — I mean, I go through six boxes of Kleenex an hour. Okay, that’s the flu, and you’ve got a headache and you’ve got body aches. Maybe you’ve got some diarrhea, and just overall pain.”

Nugent added: “I don’t struggle to express myself. The six-foot-two, 225-pound headache [this time] was like nothing I have ever experienced. I mean, from my tip of my toes to the top of my hair, I literally was dizzy and weak and struggled to get up to go to the bathroom. And I would lay in the bathtub a couple of times a day with the water as hot as I could take it just to divert.”

After reporting that he had contracted COVID, Nugent denied saying that the virus was “not a real pandemic,” and hit out at press reports that detailed his stance on coronavirus.

“Saying that I claimed COVID-19 was a hoax. False,” he told fans on Facebook Live. “I’ve always said… We have actually footage of me saying, if not hundreds, thousands of times… Of course there’s a Chinese virus. Hello? Who thinks that I claimed there’s no Chinese… There’s a Chinese virus. They call it COVID-19. I’m well aware of that.”

The singer also recently responded to allegations of racism, calling himself “the anti-racist”.