John Gist says he’d been careful, staying home except when absolutely necessary, for months. And then, “I let my guard down,” he admits. “I played with the wild dog, and I got bit.”

Gist, whose concert promotions outfit Vegas Rock Revolution has brought heavy rock acts like ex-Kyuss members John Garcia and Brant Bjork, Scott “Wino” Weinrich of The Obsessed and Red Fang to town, started jonesing for live music after so many weeks cooped up inside. So he began going out, maskless, to local bars to catch small-scale performances.

And then, on the night of June 21, the 51-year-old Las Vegan began feeling “really dragged down, just off,” he says. “I went to bed and woke up three different times completely soaking wet. I shredded off my shirts multiple times that night, and I couldn’t even sleep. I was so achy. I’ve never felt anything like it. I’ve been through flus and everything else, but I’ve never felt like this before.”

The next day, Gist went for a drive-thru nasal swab, and two hours later he got the news he’d hoped not to: He officially had COVID-19. “Hearing it was a shock, but I’d also just had a feeling,” he says.

Gist’s condition steadily worsened in the days that followed: “horrific pain—aches and pains everywhere.” Most troubling, he says, the virus seemed to seek out his “weak spots.”

“I have a lower back condition, degenerative discs, and that got worse. I was walking around like a grandpa just going from my couch to the kitchen to the bed. I also have a preexisting stomach condition, and my stomach was really painful, crazy bloated and hurting. The pain went from all over the body to amplifying these preexisting things.”

Later in June, Gist began posting about his experience on Facebook and discussing it on The Doomed & Stoned Show, a music podcast he helps produce, in an attempt, he says, to educate others. “I’ve seen so many friends not taking [the coronavirus] seriously and so many people downplaying this, and I’d been a little skeptical myself. I felt I was in good enough shape, but I guess not.”

At press time, Gist had begun feeling better. The pain had mostly subsided, though his energy level remained low. He says he’s thankful he managed to avoid the severe respiratory symptoms that force some COVID-19 sufferers into the hospital, though he worries about long-term effects.

Mostly, Gist says, he looks forward to the day when he tests negative and can begin living his life more normally again. But when he does, he says, he’ll do it very differently, and implores others to learn from his mistake. “Be wary and cautious,” Gist says. “I can’t speak to the science behind it all, but you’d better believe when I start getting back into the public, I’ll be wearing the mask. It helps myself, and more importantly, it helps others.”