Bez opens up about COVID-19 battle: "I really seriously thought I was going to die"

3 August 2021, 16:16 | Updated: 3 August 2021, 17:02

Happy Mondays' Bez at Penn Fest 2019 — Happy Mondays' Bez has opened up about COVID-19 battle. Picture: Jim Dyson/Getty Images

By Jenny Mensah

The Happy Mondays legend has shared his harrowing experience of contracting coronavirus and talked about his bandmate Shaun Ryder having it too.

Bez has talked about his experience with contracting COVID-19.

The Happy Mondays dancer is known for his happy-go-lucky demeanour, but he admitted when he contracted the virus, he thought he "was going to die".

Speaking to the Daily Star, he revealed: "I got to the hospital and I said, ‘I’ve been having this heart attack for three days’ and they plugged me into the machines and everything and I had a swollen heart and a virus. I really seriously thought I was going to die."

However, the Step On star did think that his training and healthy living at the time did allow him to get over the virus more quickly.

"I continued my juicing and taking my vitamin C, drinking my apple cider vinegar and I did get over it very, very quickly," said the 57-year-old.

Bez wasn’t the only member of the Happy Mondays to be diagnosed with COVID-19, however, as frontman Shaun Ryder – who was once sacked as a postman for biting a dog – was reportedly struck with the virus months later

"Shaun had it for like three weeks," Bez told the Daily Star. "He was hallucinating and having visitations from the aliens telling him he would be all right. I was quite worried about old Shaun as he isn’t the healthiest man in the world.

"I’ve always told him to take Vitamin C and all that but he says, ‘I’m allergic to it.’ But it transpired he could only eat fruit as he was that ill, and he [has] alopecia so all his hair has fallen out, but from only eating fruit and getting his Vitamin C his hair started growing back. Like I told him, ‘It was a COVID miracle.’"

Shaun Ryder spoke about his experience last March and though he didn't know for sure he had coronavirus at the time, he said he and his wife were “floored” by their symptoms.

"I'm pretty sure we've had it," he told Sky News. "We had symptoms of it. I mean, nothing puts my missus in bed; no matter what, she'll still get up even if she's dying, but this floored her. She was in bed for over a week."

The 24 Hour Party People singer added: "She had pretty much everything they said: couldn't move, found it hard breathing. Then I went down with the old headaches and flu-type symptoms. I had no energy but nothing that I'd go to A&E with, I coped with it at home"