“I can’t believe I’m here. I can’t believe I’m in front of you,” Tracy Morgan told Matt Lauer on Monday’s Today show. In his first interview since the 2014 car crash that left him in a coma, Morgan opened up about the healing process, and also dealing with the loss of his friend James McNair, who died in the accident. The collision occurred when a Walmart truck crashed into the back of a limo carrying Morgan and McNair, among others. The lawsuit Morgan filed against the company was settled last week.
Morgan doesn’t remember the accident, and he only found out his friend had died after he emerged from his coma two weeks later. He then spent days watching footage of the accident, and when he came across footage of his friend’s funeral on YouTube, he says, “I lost it for about a week. … I had to pay my respects. And that was my way.”
Morgan’s last memory of his friend is from a live show he’d performed before the accident: McNair had written a Donald Sterling joke for him, and as Morgan performed it onstage and the audience applauded, he looked over and saw McNair laughing.
Morgan said he still has headaches, nosebleeds, and memory loss. But the emotional struggle is harder than any of his remaining physical ailments.
“Bones heal,” Morgan said. “But the loss of my friend will never heal.”
When Lauer asked whether he wanted to go back to performing, Morgan said he still loves comedy, but “right now my goal is just to heal and get better. Because I’m not 100 percent yet. I’m not. And when I’m there you’ll know it. I’ll get back to making you laugh. I promise you.”
