Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson on COVID battle: “It's not just a flu – it makes your willy shrivel”
Bruce Dickinson has opened up about his experience with COVID-19, dismissing the idea that the virus is “just a flu”.
The Iron Maiden frontman contracted the coronavirus last month, despite having received both doses of the vaccine. He’d taken a test after feeling “a bit groggy” but believed he would’ve been in “serious trouble” had he not been inoculated.
Dickinson subsequently urged fans to “get vaccinated”, reasoning: “And if you do get sick, you won’t get that sick. It’ll just be like a mild case of the flu.”
In a recent interview with New York radio station Sirius XM (via Blabbermouth), the singer once again stressed the importance of getting jabbed while recalling his experience of fighting the virus.
“I had my double shot of vaccine back in May, and everything [was] hunky-dory, and then I got what people are calling a breakthrough COVID infection, which was just like a… It’s a bit more than a flu,” Dickinson explained.
“I would really caution against people who go, ‘Oh, it’s just flu’. No, it’s not. And I know a lot of people who were not vaccinated – not because they didn’t want to be, but they were too young to get it initially. You know, 22, 23, 24-year-old people who have not been able to get out of bed for six to eight weeks after it – they’ve been really sick, ongoing.”
Dickinson went on to discuss the long-term effects of COVID, including “diabetes, causing stuff with your brain, even – dare I say it – erectile dysfunction. There you go. They didn’t tell you about that when they said go and get vaccinated.”
He continued: “There’s a really good reason to go [and get the vaccine] ’cause [COVID] makes your willy shrivel. Because the blood vessels with COVID can become really inflamed, so they get blocked up and your extremities don’t get enough blood, and, obviously, there’s one extremity which is dear to our heart as men, and if that doesn’t get enough blood, then, boy, you’re in for a world of pain – or not.”
Dickinson said that he “got over” the virus in 10 days, adding: “It took me about a week after that to get my smell back, to start feeling more normal – get energy and stuff. But this is not just an ordinary commoner garden flu.
“Honestly, it’s my personal opinion – I’m not forcing anybody to go and do stuff – but I would advise anybody to just go ahead and get the vaccine.”
Iron Maiden returned in July with their first new track in six years, ‘The Writings On The Wall’. The band’s long-awaited 17th studio album, ‘Senjutsu’, arrived last Friday (September 3).
