Things are going really well for Tracy Morgan now, but there was a time when he almost gave up.
The “30 Rock” star told Rolling Stone that he considered suicide after a 2014 car accident that left him hospitalized and killed comedian James McNair. A Walmart tractor-trailer rear-ended Morgan’s limo bus on the New Jersey Turnpike; also aboard were McNair and comedian Ardley Fuqua, who was also injured.
Morgan suffered a traumatic brain injury and multiple broken bones. He was in a coma for eight days and was blind for six days..
“My thoughts — I was in a very dark place,” he said. “I was sitting right here, contemplating suicide. I couldn’t walk.”
Morgan said he has struggled with guilt since the accident: guilt that he survived and that his friend McNair, who as a comic was known as “Uncle Jimmy Mack,” didn’t.
“Emotionally, it’s hard for me to deal with,” he said. “I asked everybody 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.”
Now back to working, Morgan is playing a series of sold-out standup shows and said it just wasn’t his time to go.
“I still have s**t here to do,” he said. “It’s gonna take more than 18 wheels for me to get out of here.”
