Jay Leno Admits He's Learned 'Nothing' After Car Fire and Motorcycle Accident

Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno is lucky to be alive after recently suffering not one, but two near-death experiences. Leno's woes began in November 2022 when his face and hands were badly burned in a fire while working on one of his vintage cars in his Los Angeles garage. Then, just months later, he was nearly decapitated from being clotheslined while test driving an antique motorcycle.

But don't expect the 73-year-old to change his ways anytime soon.

While attending the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, where his old friend Billy Crystal was being honored, Leno was asked by Entertainment Tonight how the accidents have changed his perspective on life

"Nothing. It hasn't changed it at all," Leno quipped. "Once a man hits 40, you can't convince him of anything else."

"I'm still riding motorcycles. I'm still falling off, I'm still working on cars," he continued. "No. No, once a guy ... you can't teach him new tricks."

When asked what 2024 looks like for him, Leno joked: "Oh, riding motorcycles and falling off!"

Back in June, Leno opened up about the extensive cosmetic facial reconstructing he underwent as a result of his injuries, which involved pig intestine as a biological skin substitute.

"Well, I got a new face and a new ear," he told CNN's Chris Wallace. "I mean, ears when you, when you catch fire there’s no bone—ears are like paper. They go up. So they, they make you a new one. And they… It’s artificial skin. I think it is. Yeah."

However, after the motorcycle accident, Leno had to pay another visit to his "face guy."

"If I had been going 50 or 60, I would have been decapitated," he explained. "But luckily it just … tore my face across here. So I went home and I called my face guy again, I go, you know, my new face. And he goes ‘what did you do?’ I told him, I went back to him and he fixed it again."