NEW YORK, March 25 (UPI) — Tracy Morgan is opening up about his 2014 car crash and difficult road to recovery.
The 47-year-old actor discussed the incident with Rolling Stone after kicking off his first stand-up comedy tour since the crash. Morgan was involved in a six-vehicle crash that left him seriously injured and fellow comedian James McNair dead.
“I said, ‘If my funny ever went away, I’d die,'” the star recalled. “And I thought I was going to die for a long time. My thoughts — I was in a very dark place. I was sitting right here, contemplating suicide. I couldn’t walk.”
“Emotionally, it’s hard for me to deal with,” he admitted. “I asked everybody [in the car] to be there that night. I have to live with that. But I had to forgive myself. I know Jimmy would want it like that.”
Morgan was in a coma for eight days following the crash and has no memory of the event, which injured three other passengers. The actor told the magazine he turned to comedy during his recovery, realizing, “I still have [expletive] here to do.”
“People don’t come through something like this and do that,” he said of his return to Saturday Night Live in October. “When I was going to come back, it was going to be a train wreck or it was going to be a miracle. I decided to give you a miracle.”
Morgan, who reached a settlement over the crash in May, shares a 2-year-old daughter with wife Megan Wollover and three children with ex-wife Sabina Morgan. The actor said he hopes to have more kids, and previously credited his children with his survival.
“I survived that crash for a reason,” he told Barbara Walters in an interview in December. “I’m still here for a reason. I guess my room wasn’t ready [in Heaven]. Maybe He kept me here to raise my daughter. Raise my family.”
Morgan kicked off his Picking Up the Pieces tour in February and will bring the venture to a close May 28 in Westhampton Beach, N.Y. The actor is known for his work on Saturday Night Live and playing Tracy Jordan on NBC series 30 Rock.
