- Questlove told Jimmy Fallon on Monday he had no idea Smith slapped Rock.
- The Roots frontman said he was meditating when it happened. He won an Oscar directly after.
- Questlove won the best feature documentary prize for his movie "Summer of Soul."
AfterWill Smith slapped Chris Rock, musician Questlove had to get up on stage since his film, "Summer of Soul," was the winner of the category Rock was presenting at the time: best documentary feature.
The frontman of The Rootsrevealed on Monday's "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" — where his group is the house band — that when he got up on the Oscars stage, he had no clue what had happened because he had been meditating the whole time leading up to the award being announced.
"When the commercial break was happening, I was just in my [space]," Questlove told Fallon, noting for the last two years he's been doing Transcendental Meditation.
"So when I opened my eyes, I didn't realize, like, why is everyone so quiet? Like, I literally was not present for that whole entire moment," he said. "And as I'm walking to the stage, I'm kind of putting two and two together and I realize that that was a real moment, like, maybe three seconds before I spoke words."
Questlove admits he thought the two were just doing a comedy bit so he paid no attention to it, and was just going over who he wanted to thank if he won the Oscar.
"I was not present at all. I was just in a blank space," he said.
Questlove's "Summer of Soul," which marked his feature directing debut, focuses on the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival which featured performances by Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone.
On Monday, Smith apologized to Rockin an Instagram post.
"Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive," he wrote. "My behavior at last night's Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable."
电影艺术与科学学院,which puts on the Oscars,said on Mondaythat it is launching a formal review into Smith slapping Rock.
