Asleep At The Wheel’s Ray Benson Announces He Has COVID-19, Says Typical Symptoms Don’t Necessarily Apply To Everyone

Ray Benson, frontman of Grammy-winning country band Asleep At The Wheel, announced Wednesday he has tested positive with COVID-19 and that while he is “still very fatigued/dizzy,” he feels optimistic about his current situation. 

Benson, who is also an actor and voice actor, shared a lengthy message about his condition on his Facebook page, beginning with saying he was “filled with so much love and gratitude” and thanked family, friends and fans for calls, texts, emails and notes on social media. 

The musician explained he tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday after being bed-ridden with headaches and extreme fatigue / dizziness. Benson said that after initially being tested for flu and influenza, which came back negative, he requested a COVID-19 test but was told there were none available. He went back home but the symptoms kept recurring and progressing, “being extremely fatigued, just falling asleep all the time, headaches were getting worse,” and so he went back to the doctor on Monday to do bloodwork and other tests. 

“I am still very fatigued/dizzy and in bed for now,” Benson wrote. “Doctor says if nothing further comes up like elevated temperature, respiratory, cough etc., I should be in the clear in the coming weeks.”

Benson’s message noted that you can be positive for COVID-19 even if you don’t have the most common symptoms associated with coronavirus, such as fever, cough and shortness of breath. Patients who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 have also experienced “aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea,” according to the World Health Organization, while others become infected but don’t develop any symptoms. 

“What I’d like to get out there is I am and was very frustrated with the lack of testing available,” Benson said. “It took basically testing for everything else to acquire a COVID 19 test. Luckily, I wasn’t around that many people within this time frame and was practicing the standard things like washing your hands/sanitizer, wearing a mask at the doctors, keeping proper distance etc.. So I’d like everyone to know the  “symptoms” that are out there as ways to know if you have it or don’t have the virus, doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone. They didn’t for me!” 

The rest of his message is posted below. 

“So, please take this virus seriously! It’s for real. Please follow the safety guidelines out there.  If you think or subscribe to those folks whose opinion is that this virus isn’t that big of a deal, please consider otherwise. Please use your voice to demand getting testing out to everyone NOW! Please send your thoughts and prayers out there to all the wonderful people putting their health and their families at risk defending ours. We all know someone or somebody who has lost their life to this virus and we have lots of folks currently fighting the virus and their families need your thoughts and prayers as well. 

“Please love each other and treat everyone with respect in this time of crisis. This is real and needs to be treated as such. Be safe, wash your hands, STAY OUT OF THE PUBLIC,  hunker down and I look forward to getting out on the road and playing music with my band and seeing everyone ASAP!” 

Recent Boxoffice reports for Asleep At The Wheel include a Feb. 5 show at Ponte Verde Concert Hall in Ponte Verde Beach, Fla., that sold 400 tickets and grossed $13,012 and a Dec. 2 show at the Mary Staurt Rogers Theatre in Modesto, Calif., that sold 504 tickets and grossed $23,870. 

The group also opened for George Strait at Dickeies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Nov. 22-23, which sold 24,953 tickets over two days and grossed more than $5.7 million.