Jackson Browne has coronavirus.
The 71-year-old musician was tested for the disease after falling ill with a cough and high temperature but he insisted his symptoms have been "pretty mild" and he’s currently resting at home in Los Angeles.
He told Rolling Stone magazine: "As soon as I had a small cough and a temperature, I tested.
"My symptoms are really pretty mild, so I don’t require any kind of medication and certainly not hospitalisation or anything like that."
The ‘Doctor My Eyes’ hitmaker urged people to take social distancing guidelines seriously because not everyone shows symptoms and can spread the highly-contagious respiratory disease without realising.
He said: "So many people that have it aren’t going to be tested.
"They don’t have symptoms, but they might have it and might be able to pass it on.
"That’s what younger readers need to understand: They need to take part in the global response to stop the spread. That means not going anywhere, not getting into contact with anybody, not seeing anybody."
Jackson believes he may have contracted the virus when he recently travelled to New York for the ‘Love Rocks NYC’ benefit show, which also featured Cyndi Lauper, Dave Matthews, Warren Haynes, Susan Tedeschi, and Derek Trucks.
He said: "I’m presuming I got this flying back and forth to New York to do [the] ‘Love Rocks’ show at the Beacon. And now it turns out that several people who were at that show have tested positive. I’m going to try and get in touch with everybody and keep talking with them.
"I feel lucky that I’m not really badly affected. I guess I’ve got a really strong immune system. There’s so much we don’t know. The one thing you can do is not go anywhere, not show up anywhere.
"Now, I wish I hadn’t gone to New York and done this benefit. I think to myself, ‘How much simpler would it have been had I just called in and said, "No, I’m not going to travel on a cross-country flight and spend two days in New York with all these people that are singing all over the country." ‘ "
The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame inductee has been using his period of self-isolation to check in with people he’s often "too busy" to call.
He said: "It’s about 10 days. It’s not that long, but it feels like forever. It seems like a long time…
"I’m having a lot of really great conversations with friends of mine who I’ve been too busy to catch up with in a long time. There’s that. I’m trying to keep track of everyone in my family and all my friends.
"When you calm down and start thinking about other people and their vulnerabilities … I know people all over the place that normally I’m too busy to keep track of. But now I’m able to call and see how they’re doing."
Jackson Browne has coronavirus
