MTV VJ Matt Pinfield Confirms He’s Recovering After Suffering Stroke

Former MTV VJ Matt Pinfield joyously announced that he is on the road to recovery after suffering a stroke in January.

“Guys, I’m alive. I’m recovering and am going to come back swinging,” Pinfield, 63, told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, March 14.

The longtime 120 Minutes host confirmed initial reports that he was “unresponsive for two months” after falling into a coma on January 6.

“Friends were thinking they were coming to see me for the last time. The doctors never expected me to speak or to walk again,” he admitted.

Pinfield made a miraculous recovery in February and has since been discharged from the intensive care unit so he can be treated at a Los Angeles rehabilitation center. The classic rock radio DJ expressed hope that he’ll be able to return to work soon.

“I’m definitely going to take some time to recover,” he insisted. “Then I’ll do my radio shows again and get back to work doing what I love, which is to entertain people playing music.”

The former VJ was working in radio for both KLOS and KCSN in Los Angeles before his hospitalization. Matt shared his gratitude to those in the rock community who rallied behind him on social media, as well thanking his daughter Jessica Pinfield, 38, for assuming temporary guardianship during his hospitalization.

“She’s the one who saved my life. She protected me,” Matt said of his daughter.

Many rock superstars offered supportive words following Matt’s initial hospitalization, including Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, hard rock legends Living Colour and singer-songwriter Pete Yorn.

“Thinking of Matt Pinfield and his family during this difficult time and sending them love and support. We love you Matt,” Corgan wrote January 19 via X.

Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson shared a heartwarming Facebook tribute to the DJ on January 30, writing that she was “crushed to hear about the health struggles of [the] beloved musical guru.”

“He has championed so many artists over the decades who would have otherwise been ignored by mainstream media and the American music scene would be very different indeed without his taste and influence,” Manson insisted. “If it wasn’t for Matt, our band wouldn’t even exist. He was our fairy godmother.”

Pinfield worked at MTV on and off from 1995 to 2013, and also served as vice president of A&R and artist development for Columbia Records from 2001 to 2006. In his record label job, Pinfield guided the early careers of Coheed and Cambria, Cold and Crossfade.

The music industry legend was previously hospitalized for a broken leg and multiple lacerations in 2018 after he was struck in a hit-and-run collision while crossing the street in Los Angeles. He later told Sweet James Accident Attorneys that his life was “completely turned upside down” when his leg was “snapped in half” in the crash.

“It happened too quickly. I didn’t even know my head went through the windshield,” he recalled. “I was laying there on the ground. I didn’t know if I was going to live or die, to be honest with you.”