Pharrell Williams, the pop hitman behind the song ‘Happy‘, is one of the most successful black singers in the industry. But his way to success wasn’t easy, though his journey was full of some fun anecdotes.
The singer recently spilled the beans about his brief time spent flipping burgers at McDonald’s — and flunking an anything-remotely-decent record. Talking to BBC Radio 2, the 13-time Grammy winner remembered getting fired from the fast-food chain three different times. Here’s what he said.
Pharrell Williams Reveals Why McDonald’s Fired Him Thrice
The way to stardom is almost never easy — more so if you are a black man trying to make it big in Hollywood. Pharrell Williams was no exception. The singer recently revealed that the renowned burger joint McDonald’s fired him 3 times while he was in his struggling days.
“McDonald’s, my first and only job — got fired three times,” Williams laughed, confessing. “I was eating the chicken nuggets,” he added. But the highlight was the sweet and sour sauce that he truly liked with his McNuggets. It was also the very thing that sealed his dismissal from the food joint.
“I found that the combination of sweet and sour sauce and the chicken nugget was pretty alchemical,” he admitted. “I’d flip back and forth between sweet and sour on one, ranch on the other,” he said, admitting that he snacked often at work and, proclaimed himself as lazy. Well. it was no surprise that he was dismissed permanently for good.
Pharrell Williams Has A Complicated Love-Hate Relationship With McDonald’s
Ironically, Pharrell Williams would return to McDonald’s in the most unlikely of capacities. In the early 2000s, he contributed to the production of Justin Timberlake’s 2003 single ‘I’m Lovin’ It‘, which prominently featured the five-note jingle from McDonald’s. The ditty, all but ubiquitous now, would help cement the fast food giant even further in popular culture.
In a recent interview on the popular series Hot Ones, Williams clarified his involvement with the jingle, stating that he was not the mastermind behind the famous melody. “I didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘Oh, I’ve got an idea for McDonald’s: da da da da da, I’m lovin’ it,'” he said.
“McDonald’s brought that to us and asked us to make a song out of it. And we were like, ‘Yeah, sure,'” he added. Although it is known that the contribution from the song by Pharrell is acknowledged, the fact that it itself is a jingle brings controversy.
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In 2016, rapper Pusha T claimed that he came up with the five-note melody, which was then presented to courts through ad executive Tom Batoy to dismiss the claim. It seems that Pharrell appears to be quite laid back when approached regarding being associated with the jingle and gives belief to the fact that the success of the jingle came through the means of collaboration.
While Pharrell’s days of nugget-snatching are clearly in his past, the relationship he shares with McDonald’s is much more in tune with the free-spirited kid from Virginia.
