Jay Leno, the American talk show host, underwent surgery last Tuesday to heal many broken bones sustained in a motorcycle accident in early January, according to an interview he gave last Friday.
The former Tonight Show host, known for his obsession with automobiles, seemed to be in a good mood.
“A 72-year-old man is driving an 83-year-old motorcycle. What could go wrong? He cracked a joke.
Leno claims his most recent accident occurred on January 17 while test-riding a 1940 Indian four-cylinder motorcycle with a sidecar and smelled gas coming from the vehicle, two months after sustaining burns while working on cars in his garage.
He turned down a side street to inspect the motorcycle but was knocked off the bike after passing over an unseen wire. As a result of the accident, he needed surgery to repair a cracked clavicle, two broken ribs, two broken kneecaps, and a scar across his neck.
Even if it was painful, he insisted that nothing was lost. “I consider myself fortunate to be 72 years old. This could have been very serious if I had been an older man.”
Despite the wounds, the comedian claimed in the interview that he was in good physical shape and would be able to work over the weekend.
He still plans to perform at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, California, on Sunday nights. He also has shows scheduled in Arizona and Ohio in the coming weeks.
In an interview with a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal last Thursday, he revealed the news of the motorcycle accident for the first time.
Mr. John Katsilometes, a columnist, had inquired about his recovery after suffering severe burns in a gasoline fire in his Burbank, California, garage in late 2022.
“That was the first accident,” Leno retorted.
In an interview with the Review-Journal, he stated that he was hesitant to publicly discuss the motorcycle accident due to the significant media attention surrounding his previous accident just a few months earlier.
According to the medical community, he underwent surgery in November after suffering “severe burns” to his face, chest, and hands while working on one of his automobiles. Following the fire, Leno stated that he would “only need a week or two” to recover.
He joked about the collisions last Friday: “I try to crash within five or six miles of my garage every single time so I can get stuff back.”
The accident also coincides with CNBC’s decision not to renew Jay Leno’s Garage, which has featured celebrity interviews and his massive automobile collection since 2015.
The change, according to Leno, was part of a larger restructuring of CNBC’s programming. Network representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
“I’d like to continue working with NBC. So there’s no animosity or bad blood, right? I wish them luck in everything they do there,” he added. “We had a good time while we were there.”
Leno, who has been a fixture on NBC’s television programming for three decades, said he was looking for a new home for the show, possibly on a streaming service, which he described as “the wave of the future.”
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