Pharrell may be a Grammy Award-winning artist and producer now, but before he made it in the music industry, he was once fired from McDonald’s “three times.”
“McDonald’s was my first and only job. I got fired three times. I was eating the chicken nuggets,” he told BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday (Nov. 5).
“The first two times it was just because I was lazy. The third was like, ‘What are you doing? You’re just sitting there eating nuggets?'” he elaborated.
READ MORE: Pharrell Says ‘Happy’ Is the Song That ‘Broke’ Him
The iconic producer has earned 13 Grammys throughout his career and be lauded as one of the most influential musicians and producers of the 21st century.
He got his start as part of the duo the Neptunes with childhood friend Chad Hugo, whom he met in seventh-grade band camp.
The two graduated from high school together and Pharrell attended two years of college before dropping out to be in the Neptunes.
They later formed the alternative band N.E.R.D. in 1999.
Pharrell went on to work with artists such as Jay-Z, Robin Thicke, Daft Punk, Madonna, Maroon 5, Shakira and many more.
But perhaps his most successful work came with the release of the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack in 2013 when “Happy” became an international hit.
Ironically, McDonald’s has released Despicable Me and Minions-themed toys several times over.
Presumably, Pharrell worked for the infamous Golden Arches when he was a teen, but his full-circle success with “Happy” didn’t come until years later.
“When I was about 40, that’s when ‘Get Lucky,’ ‘Blurred Lines,’ ‘Happy,’ all of that was the same year. And these were all songs that were more commissions than they were just like, I woke up one day and decided I’m going to write about X, Y and Z,” he told Zane Lowe in an interview for Apple Music 1.
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Gallery Credit: Dana Getz