Marianne Faithfull, 74, reveals she ‘may not be able to sing ever again’ after battle with COVID-19

She was so ill with Covid-19 last April that her ex-husband said she was ‘barely able to speak’ and her doctors even recommended ‘palliative care only.’

But Marianne Faithfull has survived and bounced back, and she’s even releasing a new solo album – her 21st – this coming April, one year after being sick.

In an interview on Friday with The Guardian in support of the new record, the As Tears Go By rocker, 74, reflected on her health journey and the lasting affects the coronavirus has had on her.

Survivor: Marianne Faithfull has bounced back, and she’s even releasing a new solo album – her 21st – this coming April, one year after being severely ill with Covid-19; seen here in 2012

‘I may not be able to sing ever again,’ Faithfull told the publication. ‘Maybe that’s over. I would be incredibly upset if that was the case, but, on the other hand, I am 74.

‘I don’t feel cursed and I don’t feel invincible,’ she continued. ‘I just feel f**king human. But what I do believe in, which gives me hope, I do believe in miracles.’  

Marianne went on to say that one of her primary doctors during her Covid battle last spring said that ‘she didn’t think my lungs would ever recover.

‘And where I finally ended up is: OK, maybe they won’t, but maybe, by a miracle, they will. I don’t know why I believe in miracles. I just do. Maybe I have to, the journey I’ve been on, the things that I’ve put myself through, that I’ve got through so far and I’m OK.’ 

Recently Marianne reflected on her health journey and the lasting affects the coronavirus has had on her: ‘I may not be able to sing ever again’; seen here onstage in 2011

And Faithfull has indeed been through a lot in her nearly 60-year career, which has led to romantic tanglings with the likes of Mick Jagger, as well as bouts of drug addiction, bulimia, suicide attempts, homelessness, breast cancer, hepatitis C, emphysema and most recently, a broken hip that became infected after surgery in 2014.

This, plus the fact that Marianne was a longtime smoker before contracting the novel coronavirus. 

‘I wish I’d never picked up a cigarette in my life,’ she reflected. 

Veteran: Faithfull has been through a lot in her decorated, nearly 60-year career, which has led to illness, drug addiction and romantic tanglings with Mick Jagger; seen together in 1969

In addition to her lungs being adversely affected by the disease, the Ballad Of Lucy Jordan songbird identified two other lasting effects from Covid: constant fatigue and persistent problems with short-term memory loss.

‘It’s wild, the things I forget,’ she said. ‘Short-term. I remember the distant past very well. It’s recent things I can’t remember. And that’s ghastly.’

But at the end of the day, it’s her lung issues and resulting inability to sing that vexes her most. 

Seen in 1967: Marianne was a longtime smoker before contracting the novel coronavirus, and reflected that ‘I wish I’d never picked up a cigarette in my life’

‘My lungs are still not OK – I have to have oxygen and all that stuff,’ Faithfull said. ‘The side-effects are so strange. Some people come back from it but they can’t walk or speak. Awful.’

Nonetheless, the music veteran somehow found the strength to finish her most recent album She Walks in Beauty, a collaboration with Warren Ellis which comes out this April.  

The record is based on Romantic poetry, and Marianne reflected on how well-timed the release is.

‘It’s the most perfect thing for this moment in our lives,’ she noted. ‘We recorded it in lockdown, and I thought so as I was doing it. I found it very comforting and very kind of beautiful. Now when I read them [the poems], I see eternity – they’re like a river or a mountain, they’re beautiful and comforting.’

Still: The music veteran somehow found the strength to finish her most recent album She Walks in Beauty, a collaboration with Warren Ellis which comes out this April; seen in 2016