What was it like to be asked to come back to host “Saturday Night Live”?

It wasn’t even like that. For many years, Lorne Michaels is like a dad to me. That’s just the way our relationship is. The minute it happened, Lorne called my wife a million times to see what was going on. He’s always been there for me. I remember being in my car one day, talking to Lorne Michaels on the phone, and I just broke down and I said, “Lorne, I want to come home.” And he said to me, “The door’s always open.” And a week later, I got the call: You’re hosting on Oct. 17. I love Lorne Michaels like I love my daddy. He’s always taken care of me.

Were you anxious on the night of your show?

It felt like the first day I was ever there. I was nervous. When you’re doing the dress rehearsal, there’s a wardrobe person — her name is Donna — she pulls you from set to set, because you have to change. So I started to get in my own head, and thinking that the audience was looking at me like I was crippled or something was wrong with me. In between dress and air, I spoke to Lorne. I said: “Lorne, I don’t know if I can do this. It seems like the audience is feeling sorry for me.” He said, “Tracy, they don’t care about the funny — they’re just happy you’re here.” [chokes up] In that moment, I shed my tears, and I said, I’m going to let go. This young cast is giving me 100 percent, and I’m going to give them 150. And we had fun.

You’ve continued to perform stand-up comedy in clubs and theaters. How has that been going?

I just want to spread my love. God gave me a tool to do it — it’s called a sense of humor. You go down to earth, and you spread your love with your comedy. Now I’m going hard, giving them everything I got, every show. The world that we live in today, we need it. We stop being angry and hateful and just laugh together.

Is there rehabilitation work that you continue to do?

Every day. I just got out of the gym with my therapist just now, five minutes ago. Working on my legs. But more than that, it’s my emotions. I realized, and I told my wife, “Baby, that wreck made me an emotional wreck.” I had to deal with that. People don’t deal with things, and then they explode later. It manifests itself in other ways, like alcohol and drugs. No! I want to deal with it! My sense of humor is my way of dealing with things, so I had to get back onstage.

People sometimes say it’s an honor just to be nominated — I imagine you know what that feels like now?