It’s been a lonely year since Stephen Colbert departed from the television screens of fans across the country, but the famed TV personality is about to come back with a vengeance. According to a report from the Washington Post, Stephen Colbert will return to television in just a few short weeks to host “The Late Show,” and he’s taking his jokes very seriously.

Colbert has made the most of his downtime this year, “The Colbert Report,” making cameos in strange places, including filling in as the host on a Michigan public access talk show.

This week, however, Colbert is gearing up to promote his debut on “The Late Show” in two weeks. GQ ran a cover story this week on the host, and he appeared on Howard Stern’s show for an interview. Colbert revealed details about a traumatic childhood plane crash that ended the lives of his father and two brothers.

Colbert is the youngest of 11 children, and he described this week how he handled the traumatic event as a 10-year-old child. He says that the experience was very formative, and has largely made him the person he is today.

“It’s built into me the way marble is built into a statue. It’s kind of, at a certain age, what I was made of,” Colbert revealed to Stern. His GQ story went even more in-depth, revealing Colbert’s conflicting feelings of gratitude and loss surrounding the tragedy.

Colbert expanded on his views of religion and other aspects of his personal life, offering rare insight into who he really is as a person. After playing the same character for 10 years, it feels like a breath of fresh air to learn about the man behind the desk.