Fun fact: Late-night talk-show bandleaders have won Oscars the last two consecutive years. Last year, Colbert bandleader, along with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, won Best Original Score for Soul. This past Sunday, the Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, longtime bandleader for Jimmy Fallon, won Best Documentary for his genuinely great Summer Of Soul. Of course, Questo’s win was hard to process since it happened in the moments right after fellow Philly rap veteran Will Smith smacked Best Documentary presenter Chris Rock. Thankfully, though, that surreal moment did not spoil things for Questlove, who immediately gave a tearful acceptance speech. In fact, Questlove says that he didn’t even realize what had happened.

Last night, Questlove, having made his way back to New York, sat down with Jimmy Fallon to talk about his Oscar win. It’s not the focus of the conversation, but of course Questlove mentions the slap. For him, though, the slap was a distant concern:

[My mother and I] were the only two people in the room. It was that moment that I realized that we went through so much, from [my parents] sacrificing to put me in music school, and, you know, either it’s our bills or my future. And I just thought about all those moments. And of course, that happened in the cyclone of a whole nother situation with two very good friends of mine, and I really wasn’t aware of that. It’s weird to say.

The tell you ahead of time, “This is your category!” That moment, you’re either going to be full of anxiety or, for me, I’ve been meditating for the last two years. I do trans… actually, Seinfeld taught me about that, TM. A minute, when the commercial break was happening, I was just in my “mmmmm.” So when I opened my eyes, I didn’t realize — like, “why is everyone so quiet?” I literally was not present for that whole entire moment. And as I’m walking to the stage, I’m kinda putting two and two together, and I realized that that was a real moment maybe three seconds before I spoke words. But in my mind, they’re just doing a sketch or whatever, and I’m like, “OK, Ahmir. Thank your mom, your dad.” So I was not present at all. I was just in a blank state.

In the interview, Questlove also says that he never turns down a DJ set, which tracks. While the Oscars were on, Questlove also turned up on Billions, playing himself and DJ’ing at a billionaire’s party. Here’s the Tonight Show interview:

Summer Of Soul is streaming now on Hulu. Good movie!