Current Scorpions and former Motorhead drummer Mikkey Dee has issued a statement clarifying his current health after Don Dokken revealed in a recent interview that Dee had contracted coronavirus.
In a recent interview with Songfacts, Dokken was discussing touring in the current climate and revealed Dee’s coronavirus diagnosis. The singer stated, “I talked to Mikkey Dee from the Scorpions the other night, and he and his wife got COVID in Australia. They were in the middle of nowhere and got it. He called me up and he said, ‘I’ll tell you Don, you don’t want to get it. I was on the floor.’ He lost 35 pounds. He was sick as a dog – he was in a hospital. He was really in bad shape. He said, ‘I don’t know how I got it.’ Because they had social distancing big-time in Australia.”
After the news started to get picked up, Dee posted on Instagram the exact account of what happened to him earlier this year. He explained, “I just want to set some rumors straight regarding Don Dokken’s statement about my Corona situation. I did get Corona and was sick for about 1 month. I am now fully recovered since mid April.”
The drummer added, “I was already playing hockey and drums by the end of April. Unfortunately my good friend Don got some info wrong. I did not get Corona in Australia, the virus was contracted in Sweden. I did not loose 35 pounds, I lost 15 pounds. But as I just mentioned, I am now fully recovered and have registered antibodies so that feels great.”
He concluded, “I can’t wait for things to go back to normal so we can hit the road again. Thank you guys for caring and my heart goes out to each and everyone affected by the current situation our world is in. Stay safe! Mikkey.”
Scorpions have been making solid use of their pandemic downtime, pushing forward with new music. The band had intended to be recording in Los Angeles and playing a residency in Las Vegas this summer, but Klaus Meine recently revealed in an interview with Pat’s Soundbytes Unplugged that they’ve adapted to working on music via Zoom.
“The whole month of May until early June, we were working in a studio in Hannover — just the three of us: Rudolf [Schenker], Matthias [Jabs] and myself — with [producer] Greg [Fidelman] coming in via Zoom every night,” he explained. “We worked together, going through the songs, talking about the arrangements and everything: ‘I like this song’, ‘Maybe this we’ll keep for later.’ And we made great progress with the record, believe it or not. So it’s pretty crazy, but it’s been working so far very well.” At present, the band is eyeing a 2021 release.
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