Kentucky-born musician Sturgill Simpson says he has coronavirus
Kentucky-born musician Sturgill Simpson said Saturday that he has tested positive for coronavirus.
Simpson said in a lengthy Instagram post that he learned Friday from “Nashville CDC” that a test performed April 6 had come back positive.
He said he will be in self-quarantine until April 19.
Simpson said he went to a hospital emergency room on March 13 because he was experiencing “chest pains, fever, and pre-stroke blood pressure levels,” but he said the doctor there told him that he did not meet testing criteria.
Simpson said he had just returned home a day before from a tour that took him to Western Europe for two weeks in late January and early February, “then up and down the southeast/eastern US playing arena shows mid Feb to early March.”
He said he played his last show March 10 in Charleston, S.C., before the tour with and fellow Eastern Kentucky native Tyler Childers was sidelined by the pandemic.
Simpson and Childers played a sold out show at Rupp Arena on Feb. 28.
Simpson said he was finally tested for COVID-19 at “a free drive-thru testing facility outside a National Guard depot in Alabama” on Monday.
“All I know is I first felt symptoms a month ago yet Im still positive and contagious and now on quarantine in the dojo until April 19th and really wishing Id taken my wife’s advice and put a bathroom in the floor plans..live and learn,” Simpson wrote in the Instagram post.
Simpson said his wife had tested negative for coronavirus.
After the death of John Prine this week, Simpson penned a poignant remembrance to his friend and office mate and shared it alongside a photo of the two on a motorcycle.
“I will miss the tours..I will miss our lunches..I will miss you listening to me bitch and complain about all the things you understood all too well and making me feel better sometimes by just sitting there saying nothing,” he wrote. “...So long old man. You will always be loved.”
Simpson was born in Jackson and graduated from Woodford County High School. His latest album, “Sound & Fury,” was released last fall.
This story was originally published April 11, 2020 at 7:30 PM.
