For the first time, Glee star Darren Criss is speaking out about the passing of his friend and co-star Cory Monteith who died on July 13.

“It’s been very a rough time,” he told Conan O’Brien on his TBS talk show Thursday night. “But when you start picking up the pieces after as something as tragic as this, we’re picking up the pieces and there’s two thing you’ve got to remember about Cory. One was he was a really funny guy. A great sense of humor, he loved life, and he always took care of his friends and wanted his friends to be happy.”

He added, “And on a personal note, he will be severely missed but I’m just so happy that a guy like him got to touch as many lives as he did while we were all lucky enough to have him.”

Watch Criss talk about Monteith in the clip below. You can notice the star is still visibly shaken up by the tragic loss.

Fox President Kevin Reilly told reporters yesterday that Glee‘s Cory Monteith tribute episode, scheduled to be the third episode of season 5, will focus on drug abuse and use Ryan Murphy-directed PSAs throughout the program.

After several weeks of understandable silence, Monteith’s girlfriend both on screen and off tweeted a message to fans thanking them for their support during this difficult time.

Glee season 5 premieres September 26 on Fox with a Beatles tribute.