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Matt Pinfield suffered a massive stroke at the beginning of the year that left him in a coma for two months, but miraculously the former MTV host is not only awake, but out of ICU and recovery at a rehabilitation center.
“Guys, I’m alive,” the 63-year-old announced in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m recovering and am going to come back swinging. I was unresponsive for two months. Friends were thinking they were coming to see me for the last time. The doctors never expected me to speak or to walk again.”
While Pinfield was in the hospital, his daughter Jessica was granted temporary guardianship of all medical and financial decisions. “She’s the one who saved my life,” he declared. “She protected me.”
He went on to admit that he was "close" to not surviving after developing pneumonia and getting put on a ventilator, but instead the music buff started talking shop right when he woke up. “My friends said I went on about ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ and how they couldn’t keep up with what I was saying,” he says. “They were, like, ‘Yeah, he’s still got that brain.’”
Pinfield is best-known for hosting MTV's influential alt-rock show 120 Minutes from 1995-1999, and again on MTV2’s revival from 2011-2013, and having vast musical knowledge. He went on to become vice president of A&R and Artist Development for Columbia Records before going back to his roots in hosting radio shows. And it sounds like he's not hanging up the towel yet. “I’m definitely going to take some time to recover,” he said before adding, “then I’ll do my radio shows again and get back to work doing what I love, which is to entertain people playing music.”