Ted Nugent: 'Everybody Told Me I Should Not Announce This'

Months after claiming there was "not a real pandemic," Ted Nugent found himself sicker than he'd ever been in his life. "I have had flu symptoms for the last 10 days. ... I thought I was dying," the rocker said Monday on a Facebook Live stream, noting he'd tested positive for COVID-19 that same day, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. However, the right-wing musician echoed former President Trump in calling it "the Chinese virus." "I've got a stuffed-up head, body aches. My God, what a pain in the ass," he went on. "I literally could hardly crawl out of bed the last few days. But I did, I crawled." The 72-year-old Nugent had prefaced the announcement by saying, "Everybody told me I should not announce this." He has called the pandemic a scam, spread misinformation about the vaccine, and doubted the US death toll in recent months.

In August, he claimed the pandemic was a "leftist scam to destroy [Trump]," per the Star-Telegram. In December, he said it was "not a real pandemic and that's not a real vaccine." Then last month, he claimed the US death toll was false. "They claim 500,000 people have died from COVID-19. Bulls---," he said on a Facebook stream, per NME. "'Well, this guy was stabbed to death, but they made me put down COVID,'" he added, impersonating a medical examiner. Nugent again touched upon the vaccine during Monday's stream, which found him breathing heavily and coughing occasionally. "Nobody knows what's in it. Actually, some people do know what's in it," he said, claiming doctors were "forcing it upon people." He suggested he'd be fine. "I'm notorious for plowing through any obstacles, including a positive test for Chinese-19," he said. (More Ted Nugent stories.)