Marianne Faithfull says she doesn't know if she'll "ever be able to sing again"

On Friday Faithfull will release her new album She Walks In Beauty with Warren Ellis, and during a new interview with the LA Times, Faithfull has revealed that getting COVID-19 last year has had a lasting impact on her health.

When asked about how the last year has been, Faithfull responded, "I began making my album and then I got COVID, and I nearly died. The damage has been very bad. It’s my lungs, my memory and fatigue. It couldn’t be worse. I don’t know if I will ever be able to sing again. I have singing practice once a week, and I’m doing my best, but it’s very hard."

She added, "I love touring, and it’s breaking my heart that I might possibly not be able to do it again. But I think there are ways around that, like filming. I might be able to do five shows one day: London, Paris, Berlin and two others. But I won’t be able to travel. I’m in Europe and here I’ll stay. That’s OK. I really am European."

Speaking about how she finished her new album after battling COVID, Faithfull said, "Well, I got better. I didn’t know that I was going to get long-term COVID. I thought I was OK enough. And then [producer] Head and I recorded the second half of She Walks in Beauty. You can hear that those pieces are much more vulnerable. The ones I did pre-COVID are stronger. Post-COVID, the one that strikes me is "We’ll Go No More a Roving" [by Lord Byron]. It’s so shaky."