It’s rare for someone to love and stay at the first job they had, and that rings true for superstars, too. Many in the entertainment industry have shared their stories of unremarkable — or occasionally interesting — jobs held before they made it big in their careers. One such story comes from music mogul Pharrell Williams, who once worked in the food and service industry.
Pharrell recently sat down on BBC Radio 2 where he answered a few questions asked by young listeners. The first was from a 9-year-old boy named Reggie who asked, “What was your first ever job?” The artist seemed amused by the question. “My first job, I worked at three different locations and was fired from all three,” Pharrell said, before giving a little pause and saying, “It was McDonald’s, Mr. Reggie. It was McDonald’s.” He went on to explain that he was fired for eating chicken nuggets.
This isn’t the first time Pharrell has talked about his first job, as he also relayed the same story with more details during his guest appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2015. Admittedly, Pharrell said he was “very lazy” while working at the fast-food joint. The music producer said that he was always distracted by the music, saying, “So the music would be playing and I’m like ‘I’m a hustler baby!’” At some point, his superiors realized that he wasn’t being helpful at all was “only good at eating the chicken nuggets.” Little did young Pharrell know that he’d one day be working with McDonald’s again, but this time, doing what he does best — and it has nothing to do with chicken nuggets.
Pharrell co-produced the popular McDonald’s marketing campaign song
In the early 2000s, McDonald’s was experiencing a bit of a slump and thought of ways to boost sales. They figured a new marketing campaign was the best way to introduce a fresher McDonald’s to the masses, and 14 advertising agencies pitched their ideas to the fast-food giant. The chosen idea was from the German company Heye & Partner, and they came up with the slogan “ich liebe es,” which roughly translates to “I’m lovin’ it.” However, the prompt was to come up with a jingle, and that’s where music production company Mona Davis came in.
“We had to develop long versions. We had to develop short versions,” Franco Tortora of Mona Davis said on the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast in an episode about the jingle. Soon afterward, McDonald’s worked with music veteran Steve Stoute to expand the jingle into a full song. In 2003, “I’m Loving’ It” — performed by former NSYNC member Justin Timberlake — was released. It was produced by The Neptunes, the production duo composed of Pharrell and Chad Hugo.
It was an unexpected twist of fate that Pharrell found amusing. He said it was an unbelievable opportunity. “That was just like a crazy thing, because I got fired from McDonald’s.” While appearing on the YouTube show Hot Ones, Pharrell talked about how he ended up working on the project. He said The Neptunes were approached to make a song from the jingle, and they said, “Yeah, sure.” It was a full-circle moment for the artist who McDonald’s once only noticed for his ability to eat chicken nuggets.