Tracy Morgan Breaks Down Recalling First Comedy Set After Horrific Accident: ‘I Didn’t Think I Was Ever Going To Touch The Microphone Again’

Comedian Tracy Morgan broke down in an interview with Conan O’Brien while discussing the first comedy set he preformed after returning from a near-fatal car accident in 2014.

“I remember when I first went back on stage after that,” Morgan said on Sunday’s episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. “I was hosting Saturday Night Live and at rehearsals, I decided that night, let’s go to The [Comedy] Cellar.”

“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,” he continued.

Morgan began crying as he recalled his recovery.

“I didn’t think I was going to walk again, and I did. I just fought. 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.”

Morgan spent two weeks in a coma after a Walmart truck slammed into his limousine on the New Jersey Turnpike in June of 2014, seriously injuring the comedian and killing his friend James McNair.

Morgan discussed the difficulty of being bound to a wheelchair for five months during his recovery.

“Bones heal but when you got traumatic brain injury, uh-oh, when you mess with somebody’s mind! When I came back I didn’t even know how to eat. They had to teach me how to eat,” he said.

“My daughter was only ten months so she was just learning how to walk. 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 even come to me ’cause she was scared of the wheelchair. And that really hurt me. She learned how to walk at fourteen months. And when I’d seen her take a few steps, I got out the wheelchair … and I took my first few steps. So me and my daughter learned how to walk together.”

Morgan would eventually sue Walmart for neglect as it was later revealed the driver of the semi-truck, Kevin Roper, has been awake for more than 24-hours at the time of the crash.

Morgan and Walmart settled for an undisclosed amount (reported to be in the millions) while the driver negotiated a plea deal of community service with no jail time.

Morgan eventually released a Netflix comedy special about the accident called Staying Alive.