COVID-19 closed the curtain on a Southwest Florida band, overtaking three of four members, one of them dying Monday.

Two of the Collaboration Band’s members are recovering, and the fourth member believes he had mild symptoms.

Arnold “AJ” Mullins, 64, was admitted to the hospital on Sunday and died the next day from complications of COVID-19, his friends reported.

Members Willie Miller and Alonzo Smith, tested positive for COVID-19, according to Mark Gonzales, the keyboardist for Collaboration Band. The soul, R&B and Motown band plays shows throughout Southwest Florida.

Miller, the band’s drummer, is in the hospital, but improving. He is expected to be discharged this week, Gonzales said.

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Smith, the band’s bass player, who has been sick the longest, is at home, also improving from symptoms.

Gonzales was showing mild symptoms — a fever and fatigue —and plans to get tested this week. He started to self-quarantine once he heard his bandmates tested positive for the virus.

Miller brought them together into the Collaboration Band where they started out playing jam sessions once a week in Port Charlotte before they became a full-time band, Gonzales said.

Gonzales first met Mullins six years ago, when Mullins was playing a gig at Space 39 Art Bar & Martini Lounge  in Fort Myers and needed a keyboard player. Gonzales played with him that night and Mullins asked him to play more gigs together.

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The band last played together June 22, seven days before Mullins’ death. 

 Gonzales said once bars started to reopen, places where they had played started asking them to come back.

With most of the members counting on the band as their main source of income and few months without a paycheck, the band decided to return to the stage and felt fit and healthy.

None of them know for sure how they contracted COVID-19.

They tried their best to be careful, but Gonzales said it was unrealistic for a vocal band, to play for hours while wearing masks. 

“The problem is when you put people in an environment where their purpose for being there is to party, dance and drink, you can’t control the behavior of people effectively,” Gonzales said.

In March, Conrad Buchanan, 39, known professionally as DJ Griff Gotti, a well known DJ in Fort Myers also died of COVID-19.

Florida has shut down bars and restaurants, opened them again with restrictions and most recently, suspended the on-site consumption of alcohol at bars. 

Some bars decided to shut down temporarily even though they can still serve food and sealed containers.

Dek Bar in Cape Coral posted on Facebook June 30 announcing they will be closed because of COVID-19. 

They also sent their condolences for the death of Mullins, mentioning that The Collaboration Band frequently performed in their area.

Monkey Bar Steak & Seafood, in Cape Coral, also announced on Facebook they would be temporarily closed due to a possible exposure of a performer to COVID-19.

The posts state they will reopen July 2.

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