Jay Leno Shows His ‘Brand New Face’ After Suffering Third-Degree Burns

Jay Leno joked he had a “whole new face” during an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” on Wednesday.

The former “Tonight Show” host suffered a horrific car fire on Nov. 12 that left him with third-degree burns to his face, chest and hands.

The 72-year-old was greeted with loud applause from the audience as he sat down to chat with the ‘Since U Been Gone’ singer about his injuries.

“You look great though,” Clarkson told Leno, to which he replied, “That’s a whole new face.”

“It’s, it’s amazing,” Leno continued. “What happened, I was working on a car and I had a full tank of gas and it caught on fire. And I had eaten a hot Dorito and when I bit into it, it made me cringe. head on,” he joked.

“It was interesting. It was all third degree burns, it was pretty bad. It was pretty good.”

“You can’t tell at all,” Clarkson added.

“No, you think there would be a zipper here or something,” he joked. “No, it’s like a whole new face.”

“It’s only the second time in my career that I’m the new face of comedy,” he added.

In December, the comedian and car fanatic revealed what caused the fire to explode in his garage.

“It was a white steam car from 1907. The fuel line was clogged up so I was under it,” he said of his work on the vintage car – alongside his close friend David Killackey – in conversation with ‘Today’ anchor Hoda Kotb “It sounded stuffy and I said, ‘Blow some air in the line,’ and it did .”

Leno said the fuel line was making noise, “and all of a sudden, boom, my face was full of gas. And then the pilot light blew out and my face caught on fire.

Fortunately, Leno said Killackey acted quickly.

“I said to my friend, I said, ‘Dave, I’m on fire.’ And Dave is like, ‘All right.’ I said, ‘No, Dave, I’m on fire.’ And then, ‘Oh, my God.’ Dave, my friend, took me out and jumped on me and kind of smothered the fire,” he recalled.

Leno was taken to the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles, where he was treated for third-degree burns during a 10-day stay. Leno also received skin grafts and another surgery.

His recovery was made worse just weeks after the ordeal when he broke several bones in a freak motorbike accident.

Leno revealed details of the second accident after the Las Vegas Review-Journal asked him about the car fire.

“That was the first accident, okay? he said last month. “Then last week I was knocked off my motorcycle. So I have a broken collarbone. I have two broken ribs. I have two cracked kneecaps.

During his appearance, Leno and Clarkson treated the three nurses who treated the talk show host to a three-night vacation to the Bahamas.