Willie Nelson is one of the most celebrated living country music artists to date, his and his family’s contributions to the genre have inspired a younger generation of country music artists.
At 89 years old, Willie is still alive, kicking, and touring the United States with the Nelson Family band.
Recently he finally shared that he had a very worrying health scare earlier this year, keeping it only mum to the public.
Willie Nelson Health Scare: Is He Finally Okay?
Last May, while on tour, Willie Nelson canceled their Jazz Fest Headlining Gig after revealing that a Willie Nelson Family Band member has tested positive for COVID-19.
The identity of the band member was not revealed to the public until only recently when Willie admitted that it was actually him.
According to The New York Times, the 89-years-old country icon had been sleeping on his tour bus before heading to Nashville. They claimed that he woke up in the middle of the night, struggling to breathe properly. Willie’s rapid PCR test came back positive for COVID-19 at the time.
What makes the predicament scarier is that he just turned 89 years old at the time, which makes him extra vulnerable to the complexity of the virus.
“I had a nebulizer on the bus I started everything I could at that point, including Paxlovid. He had the monoclonal antibodies. He had steroids,” Anne Nelson, Willie’s wife told the publication.
The two returned to their home in Spicewood, Texas, and brought an entire medical unit to the ranch just to supervise Willie Nelson’s health and recovery from the virus.
“We turned the house into a hospital. There were a couple of times when I wasn’t sure he was going to make it,” she recounted.
It took six days for Nelson to recover from the COVID-19 health scare and has returned to touring two weeks later, with shows in New Braunfels in Texas.
“I had a pretty rough time with it. COVID ain’t nothing to laugh at, that’s for sure,” Willie quipped.
Willie Nelson and his Family Band are headlining the Farm Aid 2022 Music Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina on September 24 along with John Mellencamp, Margo Price, Chris Stapleton, and Sheryl Crow, among many others.