Jay Leno, the comedian and talk show presenter, has been recovering from a motorbike accident that resulted in many fractured bones. The accident occurred just months after he sustained severe burns in a fire at his Los Angeles-area garage.
In an interview, Leno confessed that he was “clotheslined,” pushed off his motorbike and hospitalized with fractured ribs and other injuries in a Jan. 17 collision near his automobile and motorcycle collection in Burbank, California. The 72-year-old comedian and former “Tonight Show” host said he was working on a vintage motorbike and was giving it a road test with its sidecar attached when he smelled the odour of leaking gas. He claimed to have adjusted the carburettor and returned to the workshop.
“So I turn around and start cutting across a parking lot,” Leno explained over the phone. “And there was a wire between two poles that wasn’t adequately marked, and, bam, it clotheslined me, smacked me in the neck, and threw me off the bike.”
The Comedian Speaks Out on His Recent Accidents
The comedian revealed his crash to the Las Vegas Review-Journal for the first time, stating he hadn’t shared it previously due to the intense focus on his recovery from burns sustained in November. On Nov. 12, a vintage car in his collection erupted in flames in his garage, causing significant burns to his hands and chest and third-degree burns to his face.
Leno stated in an exclusive interview with Hoda Kotb on NBC’s “TODAY” that he was working on his 1907 White Motor Co. steam-powered automobile with a buddy when he found the vehicle’s fuel line was clogged. Leno stated that he had gone underneath the car to attempt to repair it. “I replied, ‘Blow some air through the line,'” he remembered. “Then, suddenly, I received a faceful of gas. The pilot light then leapt, and my face caught fire.
“My friend pulled me out and jumped on top of me and kind of smothered the fire,” Leno said.
Show Cancelled by CNBC but Pitched to Other Networks
The comedian was rushed to a hospital by ambulance and then to the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles, where he got hyperbaric treatment, an oxygen therapy that “may speed burn wound healing,” according to the facility’s website. On Friday, Leno stated over the phone, “I had a minor mishap shortly after my previous one. A 72-year-old man is riding an 83-year-old motorbike.” He felt some remorse for being wounded so quickly because Grossman’s medical team promptly helped him get back into standup form.
Despite his injuries, Leno shows no signs of slowing down. CNBC has cancelled its primetime program, which included “Jay Leno’s Garage,” in which the comedian displays rare autos and takes celebrities for rides. “As CNBC doubles down on its core content of business news and personal financial information, it has extended the concept to its primetime programming, and as a result, Jay Leno’s Garage was not renewed,” a CNBC representative stated.