Matt Pinfield, the legendary radio and television host, is out of the ICU and recovering in a rehabilitation center in Los Angeles. The 63-year-old former MTV VJ suffered a stroke in early January that left him in a coma and battling pneumonia. “Guys, I’m alive,” Pinfield said in a statement.
“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 walk again.”
During his hospitalization, Pinfield’s eldest daughter Jessica assumed temporary guardianship of his medical and financial decisions. “She’s the one who saved my life,” Pinfield said of his daughter.
Matt Pinfield’s recovery and return
“She protected me.”
Pinfield shared that he was “close” to not making it, being put on a ventilator while in the coma. When he emerged, he astounded friends by talking music and quoting lyrics by Procol Harum. “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 recounted.
“They were, like, ‘Yeah, he’s still got that brain.'”
The radio host has been off social media since his stroke but is aware of the outpouring of support from friends and the music community. Shirley Manson of the band Garbage praised Pinfield’s “encyclopedic knowledge of music” and “dizzying enthusiasm” in a Facebook post, calling him “deeply respected within the musical community and beyond.”
“I want to say how grateful I am for all the people that were wishing me well,” Pinfield said. “The love of the community helped me get through this.”
Pinfield is eyeing a discharge from the hospital possibly by the end of the month, with his recovery continuing with outpatient care.
“I’m definitely going to take some time to recover,” he said. “Then I’ll do my radio shows again and get back to work doing what I love, which is to entertain people playing music.”
Prior to the stroke, Pinfield was hosting shows on multiple radio stations in the Los Angeles market and a weekly new music show syndicated by Westwood One. He is best known for hosting “120 Minutes” on MTV from 1995-1999 and 2011-2013.
