While Tracy Morgan was his typically hilarious self on the most recent episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, the comedian did get emotional when he reflected on performing for the first time after his 2014 accident.
“I was hosting Saturday Night Live and at rehearsals, I decided that night, let’s go to The [Comedy] Cellar,” he said around the 32-minute mark of the video above. “I grabbed the mic, and I remember it felt so good to be welcomed back. It really did. And that day, I didn’t think I was ever going to touch the microphone again.”
A tearful Morgan then recalled how bleak things were after the crash. “I didn’t think I was going to walk again, and I did. I just fought,” he said. “I fought to come out of the coma. I’d seen my daughter in the coma saying ‘daddy come back’ and she was only ten months and I fought and came out of the coma. Then I just wanted to be better. I wanted to be better at my life. A better person, a better human being to others, and that’s all I wanted to be. I know he spared my life for a reason.”
In 2014, a Walmart truck with a sleep-deprived driver crashed into a minibus in which Morgan was traveling in, causing the accident which killed one of Morgan’s best friends and left the 30 Rock star in coma. Morgan later settled with the company for an undisclosed amount.
The comedian told Conan that when he was finally able to return from the hospital, his daughter was scared of him because of how severe his wounds were.
“My daughter was only ten months so she was just learning how to walk,” Morgan recalled. “But she was scared of me when I first came home. I stayed in the bed for two weeks. I don’t even remember that. I stayed in the bed for two weeks and then my daughter wouldn’t come to me ’cause she was scared of the wheelchair.”
Listen to the full conversation above.
