Sturgill Simpson Tests Positive for COVID-19

Sturgill Simpson has tested positive for COVID-19, nearly one full month after his symptoms first appeared. The singer detailed the lengthy diagnosis process in an Instagram post on Saturday (April 11).

Simpson revealed that he first began feeling ill around March 13 when he returned home after a grueling few weeks of touring. After visiting Western Europe in late January/ early February and touring around the Southeast/Eastern U.S. from mid-February to early March, the singer/songwriter returned home after a show in Charleston, South Carolina on March 10 when his tour was cut short due to new government restrictions.

On March 13, he ended up in his local hospital where he was exhibiting symptoms such as “chest pains, fever, and pre-stroke blood pressure levels.” Though his symptoms aligned with many of the symptoms of COVID-19 confirmed patients, he was unable to get tested.

“I spent an hour listening to a (highly condescending) Doctor refuse to test me because I ‘did not fit testing criteria’ and tell me why it was impossible that I had contracted the virus due to its extreme rarity and that it was not in western Europe yet during that same period (which we now know is incorrect) even though I was told by two nurses that I was the first person their hospital had walk in requesting to be tested,” he wrote.

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Weeks later, on April 6, Simpson and his wife finally able to get tested at a free drive-through site in Alabama. Their test results came in a few days later.

“Yesterday on Friday April 10th, after almost one month without any symptoms, I received a call from the Nashville CDC stating that my test resulted in a positive detection for Covid-19,” he revealed. “My wife (who has been by my side since Europe) tested negative.”

Simpson went on to share his frustrations with the lack of knowledge surrounding the virus.

“I should also add that the CDC nurse I spoke to yesterday told me that it reacts differently in a case by case basis and the White House briefings and the information they are providing is basically pure speculation causing fear and that the only thing anybody knows is that we don’t really know much yet,” he continued.

He closed his post with a message directed at the Trump administration: “At least our Government appointed task force headed by a man who does not believe in science is against mass testing and we now have a second task force in the works to ‘open America back up for business.’”

Simpson was on tour with Tyler Childers when the coronavirus outbreak began shutting down business in the United States. His latest album, SOUND & FURY, was released in September of 2019.