It was just one day after Testament returned home from a five-week European tour earlier this month that the thrash-metal band’s frontman, Chuck Billy, started to feel ill, reports Rolling Stone.

"I had an achy body, headaches, coughing, tight chest, I lost my sense of smell and taste - the whole thing,” he says.

He texted his bandmates and road crew and heard that others were experiencing the same things. After a few days of feeling horrible, he and his wife got tested for COVID-19 and were not surprised when they heard the results. Chuck Billy and his wife, Tiffany, had the coronavirus.

When the band was on tour - previewing its upcoming album, Titans Of Creation, with support from fellow Bay Area thrashers Exodus and Death Angel - everyone was feeling fine. The trek had kicked off in early February in Copenhagen, and found them playing all over Europe, the UK, and Ireland. (The band canceled two shows over global coronavirus worries.) Once everyone was home, they thought they were in the clear.

“By the time we got home, within a 24-hour window amongst a group text we have going with everybody, people were just not feeling well,” Billy says. “We were like, ‘Let’s watch it and lock yourself in, and see how it goes.’ And as time went, we just all started feeling the same.”

Several Testament crew members ended up contracting what they believe is the coronavirus - the band’s bassist, Steve Di Giorgio, is also suspected to have the virus but could not get tested - and members of the other bands on the tour have gotten sick. Gary Holt, who plays guitar in Exodus, as well as Slayer, was recently tested and is still awaiting his results. Death Angel drummer Will Carroll is in intensive care, though it has not yet been revealed whether he’s battling the coronavirus. Billy says he’s monitoring everyone’s status.

In the meantime, Billy says he has started to feel better. Although he hasn’t tried to sing, he feels he’s 85 to 90 percent himself again. “I’m doing pretty good, actually,” he says. “I’m not all the way better, but I’m definitely feeling more like myself. My wife got her symptoms a day before me and started recovering a day before me, but I think we’re over the hump. I’ve never been sick that long. I’ve been sick before, but not that long like that.”

Read the complete interview with Chuck Billy at Rolling Stone.

In regards to Will Carroll, Death Angel have issued the following message:

"We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your overwhelming support, well wishes, and kind words regarding our friend and brother Will Carroll. The messages have reached us and all of his loved ones. We ask that you keep putting that wonderful energy out there for him. It will help all of us, and most importantly Will, to get through all of this.

"We also ask that at this very sensitive time to also please respect his family’s space and privacy, as well as ours regarding this matter, as we all want the same result... Will’s full recovery as soon as possible.

"Once again, we all truly appreciate the incredible support and love for him! Please keep it up! We look forward to reuniting with all of you on the other side of this sensitive time that is new to all of us. Until then... Please be safe and kind to each other! We’re all in this together...And United we’ll live forever!!"