Tracy Morgan.
Clay Patrick McBride

Tracy Morgan sat down for a remarkable interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air yesterday.

I find Tracy Morgan hysterically funny on 30 Rock, and I love his tendency to go off in public and say nutsy, hysterically weird things — as he does on Twitter at times. And as he did in Playboy recently, though I'll have you track that one down for yourself. And as I'm sure he does in his new book, I Am The New Black.

But his interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air is a revelation. I have no idea, really, how to integrate this interview into my understanding of him, because it's so intensely personal and so serious and so thoughtful. I have always taken him to be one of those Robin Williams-y guys who is almost incapable of being "off" for any period of time, but this seems to be a completely straightforward, utterly normal discussion that I, for one, absolutely was not expecting.

So often, you hear famous people go from interview to interview and say the same stuff to everyone, but this is the only interview remotely like this that I have ever heard with this particular guy. Definitely one to check out. You can hear the interview after the jump.