Motown icon Smokey Robinson has revealed that he was hospitalized last year after contracting COVID-19.
“It was over, man,” the 81-year-old singer told Daily Mail. “They had to rush me to the hospital. I got it severely and I was hospitalized for 11 days, and four or five of those I do not even remember.
“It really was touch and go and a terribly debilitating ailment … I could've died, because it was that severe.”
Robinson said he was not sure he would ever be able to sing again. “It was one of the most frightening fights I have ever had.”
The singer said he isn’t sure how he got infected but recalled feeling “weird and funny” just before Christmas. After testing positive, he quarantined in his guest house to protect his wife Frances.
Robinson said he was taken to hospital when he struggled to breathe. “Fortunately I never had to use the ventilator,” he said. “I never lost my taste or smell, but it wiped me out. I lost all my energy and could not walk from the bed to the bathroom without being exhausted.”
Robinson said doctors told him he was lucky because he was in good physical condition. "But for ... that fact I probably would not be here talking right now."