TwitterIt's good to see you again, Tracy Morgan.
The actor appeared on NBC's Today Monday morning.
The interview marked the 30 Rock star's first time back on TV after he was severely injured in a deadly bus crash in June 2014. Last week, Morgan reached an undisclosed settlement with Walmart, stemming from injuries he sustained in the crash. "Walmart did right by me and my family and for my associates and their families," he said at the time. "I am grateful that the case was resolved amicably."
Morgan, who gave a thumbs up to the camera at the start of Today Monday, suffered brain trauma, in addition to a broken leg and broken ribs, after a Walmart truck hit his limo on the New Jersey Turnpike last summer. His friend, the comedian James McNair, was killed, and two others were seriously injured.
"You're a sight for sore eyes," Matt Lauer told Morgan. "How do you feel?"
"I cant believe I'm here. I can't believe I'm in front of you. I can't believe I'm here," the Saturday Night Live vet said. "Just seeing the tragedy happened, it touches me."
In the last year, the 46-year-old comedian recalled, "I've been down. I had my family. I have my wife, [Megan Wollover]—we about to be married—and my daughter, my son, to keep my spirits up...Tina Fey and all the people calling me, just helping me get my spirits up. The case is settled but the pain is always going to be there for Jimmy Mac. He was a close friend of mine, a comrade in comedy. He was a loving man and he was a warm man," Morgan said through tears. "He was a good man. It just hurt me to see that he's gone. That's it."
Morgan said he doesn't "remember the accident." He only remembers the aftermath. "The last time I saw Jimmy, Jimmy wrote a joke for me. It was a Donald Sterling joke. I asked him to come with me the day before and he said, 'I'll be there. I love you. Peace.' We went there and we did the show and I did the joke and everybody got applause breaks. And I looked to the side and I see Jimmy standing there laughing, and that was the last time I seen him alive."
The comedian said he learned of his friend's death two weeks later, when he came out of the coma. "My lady told me, 'We put Jimmy to rest.' I just...I just came out of a coma, so. And then I got home...I would just watch the accident on YouTube, and one day, I came across his funeral on YouTube. And I just...I lost it for about a week." Why did he watch it online? "I had to pay my respects, and that was my way."
Regarding the varied reports of his condition after the accident, Morgan said, "There were times where I had my good days and my bad days, where I forget things. There are times where I have the headaches and the nosebleeds. I wouldn't even let my lady know because I don't want her to be worried about it."
Even now, he said, "I have my good days and my bad days."
Morgan also thanked Dr. Brian Greenwald, whom he continues to see.
Asked if there was anyone else he wanted to acknowledge, Morgan began to cry again. "Oh, man. Nurse Jackie. When I first came out the coma, I was a mess. I would curse out every day. I would throw things at her. And the only thing she would say to me is, 'Everything is gonna be all right,'" the actor recalled. "So one day I went to see Dr. Greenwald, and I'd been having these dreams about my room that I was in. He said, 'You wanna go upstairs and see it?' I got off the elevator. I seen all these faces coming to me that I remembered. Guess who came around the corner? Nurse Jackie. I just wrapped her and I wouldn't let her go and I said, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry.' She said, 'I told you everything was going to be all right.'"
Morgan also thanked his family, as well as the nurses at JFK Medical Center, the people who assisted in his rescue, and his legal team. "Bones heal. The loss of my friend will never heal because we'd known each other a long time," the Cop Out actor said. "But I'm happy that Walmart stepped up to the plate in a tremendous way...They took full responsibility. I'm just really happy that they looked out for Jimmy Mac's family, because I know my friend can rest in peace now."
What's next for the comedian?
"I love comedy. I love comedy. I will never stop loving her. I love comedy and I can't wait to get back to her, 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," Morgan assured Lauer. "I'll get back to making you laugh. I promise you."
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