It was revealed earlier this month that Mark Mothersbaugh, Devo co-founder and composer of numerous films and TV shows, had tested positive for COVID-19 in early June. He opened up about being hospitalized, the hallucinatory symptoms he experienced, and nearly dying in a new interview with The Los Angeles Times’ Randall Roberts published today (August 31).
“It went from, ‘I don’t feel good’ on Tuesday to an ambulance to Cedars on Saturday. It was terrifying,” Mothersbaugh said. He revealed that while on a ventilator, he hallucinated that he was attacked. “I felt blood from being hit,” he said. “I was handcuffed to a parking deck downtown. I had this whole elaborate story of how these kids sold me to an ambulance company that then got some sort of a payment for delivering COVID patients to their ICUs. I totally believed it.”
He also revealed that he hallucinated writing “a whole new Devo album and put together a whole live show.” At one point, he said a call from Anita Greenspan and his children brought him back to the present during a moment where he was exhausted and felt like, “I could just float down this river right now, and it would be really peaceful.” Mothersbaugh says he’s still feeling side effects, but is recovering and back to work on music. Read the entire interview.
Just before his 70th birthday, Mothersbaugh spoke to Pitchfork for a feature titled “Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh on the Music That Made Him.” In addition to outlining the music that soundtracked his life, he talked about creating music in quarantine and what he was looking for in music during a pandemic.