Jay Leno Says He Has ‘Brand New Ear’ Months After Suffering Major Burns In Fire

Months after suffering suffering second and third degree burns in a garage fire, the comedian Jay Leno is joking that he has a “brand new ear.”

Leno Has ‘A Brand New Ear’

Daily Mail reported that Leno, 72, was working on one of his many classic cars back in November when he was severely burned by gasoline. While appearing on the Fly on the Wall podcast, which is hosted by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Leno opened up about how he’s doing months later.

“This is a brand new ear,” the former “Tonight Show” host said. “When you get burned in a fire, ears are like paper. They’re so thin it just goes up.”

Leno went on to joke about the interesting source of his “new ear.”

“I got a buddy of mine who’s a mohel,” he said. “He gave me a bag of grafts and they work out great.”

A mohel is someone in the Jewish community who performs circumcisions by removing the foreskin from the penis of a baby boy. This is usually done when the child is eight days-old in a ceremony that is known as a bris.

In reality, the skin grafts for Leno’s ear and face were taken from a cadaver and from pig intestines. As part of his recovery, Leno had to go into a hyperbaric chamber to help oxygenate the new tissue.

Related: Jay Leno Breaks His Silence After Being Discharged From Burn Center

Leno’s Motorcycle Accident

Just two months after his fire, Leno had to return to his surgeon once again after he was injured in a motorcycle accident. 

“I said, ‘Uh oh. It’s dripping gas. I don’t want to catch fire again. Lemme turn around,'” he recalled. “I turn around in a parking lot and the guy had a wire across a parking lot but with no flag. And the sun was right here. And boom it just hit me.”

After this accident, Leno was left with “a broken collarbone, two busted ribs and two cracked kneecaps.” He said that he damaged his “new face” in this incident, meaning he had to go back to his doctor for a touchup. 

“So I called my face guy. I go, ‘Listen, you know that face, you gave me that new face? I gotta get it fixed,'” Leno recounted. “[He goes], ‘What’d you do?’ I told him, I drove up there and he fixed it again.”

Despite his physical issues over the past few months, Leno has returned to performing standup comedy, taking the stage in Las Vegas on Friday night. In the coming weeks, he has shows scheduled in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Minnesota, and tickets can be purchased on his website at Lenotour.com.

Related: Tim Allen Gives Update On Jay Leno – Reveals He’s Refusing To Take Painkillers After Suffering Serious Burns In Fire

Leno Rips ‘Whiny Celebrities’

From the very beginning, Leno had a sense of humor about his fire.

“You have to joke about it,” Leno told The Wall Street Journal back in December. “There’s nothing worse than whiny celebrities. If you joke about it, people laugh along with you.”

Leno then tried to downplay the seriousness of the fire.

“It was an accident, that’s all,” he said. “Anybody who works with their hands on a regular basis is going to have an accident at some point. If you play football, you get a concussion or a broken leg. Anything you do, there’s a risk factor. Eight days later, I had a brand new face. And it’s better than what was there before.”

In the months since his fire, Leno has continued to show that he is one of the most down-to-earth celebrities out there. If only we had more stars in Hollywood like him!