Tracy Morgan says he's "a better man" three years after the car accident that nearly killed him in 2014.
Speaking at the afterparty for the New York City premiere of his new TBS show, "The Last O.G." — which also stars Beyonce bite gossip-maven Tiffany Haddish and Cedric the Entertainer — the "30 Rock" alum got emotional as he addressed the crowd alongside his childhood friend, Busta Rhymes.
"When we were doing 'The Last O.G.,' we filmed on the streets in the projects …," said the Brooklyn native (via the New York Post).
"We bring more than just those cameras and those trailers and those lights — to the youth we bring hope, because they see people like me and Tiffany and Cedric right there and they can touch us and we thanked them all the time for allowing us to use their neighborhood," he explained. "And we are ambassadors — we have to be kind to those people and those neighborhoods, because if we are not kind to them someone could get hurt on that set."
His comment may have been a tacit acknowledgement of the fire that killed a New York City Fire Department firefighter on the set of Edward Norton's forthcoming film, "Motherless Brooklyn." If that was the case, however, it only heightened Tracy's appreciation for surviving after a crash in which a Wal-Mart truck driver hit the limo bus he and his friend, James McNair, were traveling in. James was killed and Tracy ended up in a coma with a broken leg, a broken femur, a broken nose and broken ribs.
"I know why God spared my life that day in that accident," Tracy told partygoers before Busta closed out the evening with a performance that lasted into the wee hours. "It was to bring love and to bring hope … Forget the 49 years of my life; let's think about the last three. The accident was three years ago, and am I a better man now than I was? The answer is yes!"
"The Last O.G." debuts on TBS on Tuesday, April 3.