Music mogul Simon Cowell recalls how his motorbike accident last year nearly smashed his spine to pieces, adding that the minute it happened he knew something dangerous had occurred to him.

"It could have been a lot worse. When I saw the X-ray, I really nearly could have smashed my spine to pieces, so I literally wouldn't have been able to walk," Cowell said on a chat show, according to dailymail.co.uk.

The man behind many famous formats of reality show, went on to say: "I knew I'd broken my back the minute I landed."

He also remembered thinking at the moment he hit the ground that he was not supposed to move, but that wasn't the ‘X Factor' boss thought process at the time. He realised he had "to get back into the house" and not lie there.

Cowell recalls he kept losing consciousness after he'd been carried to the house.

He broke his back in three places while riding the $20,000 (Rs 14,52,376) bike outside his Malibu mansion. He had to undertgo six hours of surgery immediately after the accident.