Nearly two years after Tracy Morgan survived a deadly bus crash in 2014, the comedian is doing well. Speaking with People ahead of his new Netflix comedy special Staying Alive (out today), Morgan opened up about his life following the accident.
In June 2014, a limousine bus that Morgan was riding in was involved in a multi-vehicle accident on the New Jersey Turnpike with a Walmart truck that took the life of his friend and mentor James “Jimmy Mac” McNair and left Morgan fighting for his life in critical condition. He wound up being in a coma for two weeks and sustained numerous broken bones.
“I got hit by a truck, it was a great story. So that’s what happened. I had a story to tell,” he told the magazine of coming up with the new special. “When anything ever badly happened to me I made it funny and I turned it good,” Morgan added. “This was a bad thing that happened to me. I wanted to tell my story, but I also want to continue my standup career because all the great things that ever happened to me in my life came through standup.”
Morgan says feels he has changed for the better since the accident. “My need to help others and my need to love others, that’s what has changed. I know it has,” he said. “Me as a person changed.”