Jay Leno is getting candid about his horrific burn accident. On December 13, the former late-night host appeared on “Today,” marking the first sit-down interview since suffering significant burns. Leno explained that at the time of the accident, he was working on a 1907 White Steam Car, when the fuel line got clogged. “I said ‘Blow some air through the line!’ Then suddenly — boom — I got a face full of gas… and my face caught on fire,” Leno explained. Leno’s friend, Dave, who was there at the time of the incident, explained how bad things were, noting that he “couldn’t even see his face.” After he went to the doctor, Leno initially drove himself back home since his wife doesn’t drive. Later he was forced to return and spent nine days at the Grossman Burn Center.
In true-Leno fashion, he cracked a joke about the ordeal. “When you look like me, you don’t really worry about what you look like. Look, if I’m George Clooney, it’s going to be a huge problem,” he said. “They said I’d be all right.” The star also pointed out a few things doctors did to help his injuries and revealed that he spent a few days in a hyperbaric chamber. But, he said that at the end of the day, he doesn’t want to seem like “some whiny celebrity.”
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Leno also spoke about the incident with the Wall Street Journal, noting his face looks “better than what was there before.”
