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In an emotional conversation with Oprah Winfrey on her SuperSoul TV show, Tracy – best known for his eight seasons as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for his role as Tracy Jordan in the comedy series 30 Rock – has described exactly what happened, and how it led to a vivid meeting with his late father, Jimmy Morgan.
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Tracy Morgan and Oprah on Super Soul Sunday
(Photo: Harpo, Inc./Jose Tutiven)
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He was on his way back from a comedy gig in 2014 when a Walmart tractor-trailer struck his limousine van on the New Jersey Turnpike, causing a devastating multi-vehicle crash.
Tracy was left with a life-threatening brain injury and his close friend, James “Jimmy Mack” McNair was killed.
It was while he was in a medically-induced coma for more than a week that he went to “the other side” and was reunited with this father, who died in 1987 at the age of 39.
“He was wearing a green thing and said, ‘I’m not ready for you, son.’
“I started crying so hard,” Tracy added. “Probably harder than I cried at his funeral, and I just kept saying, ‘Dad,’ because he was my friend for life.”
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Tracy Morgan
performing standup
(Photo: Alex Erde)
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When asked by Winfrey on Super Soul Sunday if a person can ever be normal again after a near-death experience Morgan answered, “No. I told my wife that the other day. ‘Something’s different. The way I am with people.’ I find myself saying ‘I love you’ 200 times a day to strangers. I don’t care. I don’t have to know you to love you!
“That’s how we’re supposed to be as human beings. We’re supposed to take care of each other.”
Often in tears during the interview, the actor said he truly believes he was in heaven and that his late father, who died when Tracy was just 19, encouraged him to return to the living world.
“When you’re in a coma for eight to 10 days, and you survive, trust me, you’re at peace,” he told Oprah. “I’ve been to the other side and I came back with gifts”, he added. “These jokes I’m giving y’all – they’re gifts!”
In April, he returned to New Brunswick, New Jersey, to perform his “Picking Up The Pieces” stand-up routine at the State Theatre as a benefit gig for the doctors, nurses, first responders and others that helped him survive and recover – many of them were in the audience to enjoy his performance and welcome him back to the stage.
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