Sunday night marked the first night Conan O’Brien was able to speak his mind (sort of) on television about what went down between him, Jay Leno, NBC and The Tonight Show.

The interview, on CBS’ 60 Minutes, showed a much different O’Brien than we saw a few months back as he sang Free Bird with Will Ferrell, bidding farewell to his version of the classic late night gabfest. Looking slightly older than I remembered him, and with a shorter version of his writer’s strike beard from 2007, O’Brien really had very little to lose.

Still guarded by a non-disparagement agreement with NBC, O’Brien had to be somewhat guarded with what he said (perhaps that is why Conan began some remarks with, “I don’t know if I can answer that” or “Here’s what I can say”).

O’Brien said that Leno has not reached out to him since the dispute, and that neither has NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker (who O’Brien went to university with). O’Brien’s wife was interviewed, and she said she would have supported whatever decision he made.

And while O’Brien gave some zingers, he also came across as very heartfelt:

That’s right. You know at some point I’m sure I’m  going to bump into these people.  And, you know, I’m not sure we’re  going to be– have our arms around each other and drinking beer and singing old Irish fight songs. ‘Cause I don’t think they know any.  But, you know, I wish, this is  going to sound crazy,  I do wish these people well.

What to make of O’Brien’s first sitdown? It’s hard to say.

Really, the verdict on what the motivation was behind this will come down to whether you were a Team Coco member or a Team Leno member back when all of this was going on in January and February.

If you’ve always supported O’Brien, no doubt this will cement in your mind that he was wronged and he was the one who got screwed in all of this. And you’re also going to be thankful he’s finally got to say his peace — since NBC didn’t sign Leno to a muzzle pact.

But on the flip side, if you’ve always supported Leno, you’ll say this is just O’Brien pushing buttons and trying to manipulate viewers and the media all over again. After all, O’Brien walked away with millions of dollars and will be getting a new talk show in the fall. How is that losing?

Whatever the motivation, it was nice to finally get O’Brien’s side to the whole thing (well, as much as he can say, anyway). And that’s really all it is — O’Brien’s side. It’s hard to say there’s anything wrong with a little bit of fair comment (I mean Oprah gave Leno an entire hour right after O’Brien went away).

One interesting thing that has been so under-reported because of the O’Brien interview is a tidbit David Letterman gave to Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa last week on Live with Regis and Kelly.

Remember that Super Bowl commercial with Leno, Letterman and Oprah?

Yeah, the part played by Oprah was supposed to be played by O’Brien.

For some reason, he declined the offer. That speaks more than anything O’Brien said in his 60 Minutes interview.