Tool‘s Maynard James Keenan has shared a new message for coronavirus conspiracy theorists.

It comes after the frontman revealed earlier this month that he had tested positive for COVID-19 back in February.

“It was ugly,” he told Arizona Republic. “I survived it, but it wasn’t pretty. So I definitely had to deal with that.”

He went on to explain that he hadn’t previously shared his diagnosis because he “didn’t want to run around screaming it”. “But it’s real,” he warned.

Keenan has now offered a more detailed account of his experience during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

“I’m in Australia, we went out to dinner… and immediately food didn’t taste right, but this is now, this is all hindsight, right – I didn’t know at the time,” he explained. “We didn’t know that these are the things you’re looking for, like immediately…I had to get on an international flight the next morning, fly to New Zealand.”

“So we got there, I was, like, four days in the hotel, ’cause we have four days off before the shows,” he continued. “So I was just drinking water, hot showers, taking care of myself, hot tea, just trying to get through it and it sucked. But you didn’t know yet…how bad this thing could have been. If I’d have known how bad it could have been, I would have been freaking out.”

As mentioned previously, Keenan explained that he’s still dealing with lung problems and other coronavirus-related issues. “Whatever cough I got in New Zealand, like every other day, I’ll have a coughing fit for, you know, for 10 minutes, coughing up stuff, so I have lung damage from from it still,” he said.

Elsewhere in the interview, Keenan delivered a message to conspiracy theorists who think he might be making his story up.

“I’m still feeling residual effects of [COVID-19],” he said. “I feel like there’s a bunch of people that…maybe I didn’t almost die, but I have friends who almost died. It was ugly. And then you have people going…apparently I’m being paid to say this. Eat a dick, dude.”

Meanwhile, Puscifer, the side project of Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, have announced a forthcoming livestream concert experience, dubbed Existential Reckoning: Live at Arcosanti.

The rock supergroup – also comprised of members of Tool and A Perfect Circle – recently announced the upcoming release of their fourth full-length album, ‘Existential Reckoning’, due out on October 31. The group have also shared the album’s first single, ‘The Underwhelming’.

Existential Reckoning: Live at Arcosanti debuts live on Saturday, October 31 at 1am GMT and will remain available on demand for 72 hours following its world premiere.