• facebook
  • twitter
  • rss

OVERKILL's BOBBY 'BLITZ' ELLSWORTH Details His Latest Bout With COVID-19: 'It Wasn't Easy'

August 19, 2023

In a new interview with "THAT Rocks!", the weekly YouTube series hosted by Eddie Trunk, Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson, OVERKILL frontman Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth spoke about his band's August 6 performance in the parking lot of the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey prior to METALLICA's appearance at the venue. Asked if he got a chance to say hello to any of the METALLICA guys, Blitz said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "No, I didn't. We'd just come off the road and we were trying to fight COVID. We were trying to keep people away from us. And simultaneously we were gonna go to Europe like a day and a half later. And it ended up being canceled because three more guys got it. And it wasn't just one of those little easy flu kind of things. It was bedridden and a couple of guys were, you know, they were just a mess. So we canceled the other stuff. So I didn't [see any of the METALLICA guys]. I just went home and [put my] head on the pillow and ice on the chest."

Elaborating on how much his latest bout with COVID put a strain on his health, Bobby said: "Well, it wasn't easy. I mean, I've had it in the past where it's nothing. You have a sniffle, you have a fever, you know what it is, you test yourself. You go, 'Ah, I just won't go give it to somebody,' you know? And I swear to God, I thought I had somewhere between pneumonia and a sinus infection, you know? And I'm, like, 'I've gotta get better for this METALLICA thing.' And then I think I got home [from OVERKILL's summer 2023 U.S. tour], and a day later Jason [Bittner, OVERKILL drummer] was, like, 'I got COVID.' I'm, like, 'Oh fuck. I never even thought of this.' And then, [it turned out that] there was, like, five guys in the band and crew [who contracted COVID], a ton of guests that we had seen in Long Island [at the final show of the U.S. tour on July 30] and prior to that. Obviously, nobody knew — nobody could figure out who patient one was, and who gives a rat's [ass]? But it wasn't pleasant. It was a little bit more than that sniffle and 'who cares' that I had six, eight months ago."

OVERKILL kicked off its "Scorching The Earth" U.S. tour with EXHORDER and HEATHEN on July 13 at the Great American Hall in San Francisco, California. The 16-date trek made stops in Dallas and Silver Springs, among other cities, before ending in Huntington, New York on July 30.

OVERKILL's twentieth studio album, "Scorched", was released in April via Nuclear Blast Records.

Photo by Frank White

Find more on Overkill
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).