Suzi Quatro has revealed that she has had coronavirus, saying she has “never felt anything like it”.
The singer told BBC Radio 2 that the illness took “every bit of energy that I possess”.
“It’s like somebody came into my room and hit me over the head with a sledgehammer,” the 70-year-old added.
She said she fell ill during the night after having a curry with members of her family.
“I’m just this side of hyper, if not hyper, and I slept 18 out of 24 hours for the first five days and I had to get up for two naps per day,” Quatro said.
She said people close to her suggested she probably had flu.
“I said ‘Yeah, right, like it’s going to be the flu!’.”
Discussing her symptoms, she added: “I didn’t have any appetite, my coffee tasted metallic, I didn’t have my usual breakfast champagne because I didn’t fancy it, which is another surprise for me.”
Quatro said she is almost back to feeling normal and her doctor told her that singing and performing on stage are likely to have aided her recovery.
She added that she was “reluctant to even talk about this because it’s just not my style to make public private anguish”.
However the 48 Crash singer said she hoped that by speaking out she “would help others who maybe are pooh-poohing this and making little of it”.
“It is not happily that I talk about it,” she added.
Actors Idris Elba, Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston, as well as singer Pink and author JK Rowling, are among the stars to have revealed they have tested positive for coronavirus or displayed symptoms.