Why Pharrell Williams Got Fired from McDonald's 3 Times

Before Pharrell Williams was a Grammy-winning artist, he worked at McDonald's.

In an interview with BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday, Nov. 5, the "Happy" musician, 51, opened up about his brief jaunt working in fast food.

“McDonald’s was my first and only job,” he told the outlet. “I got fired three times. I was eating the chicken nuggets.”

Williams then further elaborated on why his time at McDonald's was so short-lived.

"The first two times it was just because I was lazy," he explained. "The third was like, 'What are you doing? You're just sitting there eating nuggets?'"

The "Freedom" musician has since had a hugely successful music career which kicked off with his music production duo The Neptunes alongside Chad Hugo — whom he met in seventh grade — back in 1992. Together, they produced several hits including Snoop Dogg's “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” Gwen Stefani's “Hollaback Girl," Nelly's “Hot in Herre" and Justin Timberlake's “Rock Your Body” in the 2000s.

Pharrell, Hugo and drummer Shay Hale, formed the band N.E.R.D in 1999 and released their debut album, In Search Of… three years later.

The "Just a Cloud Away" performer has also had success as a solo artist and through his own collaborations. "Blurred Lines," his 2005 collaboration with Robin Thicke and T.I., and "Get Lucky," his 2013 team-up with Daft Punk, became chart-toppers.

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Pharrell's song "Happy" has become one of the best-selling songs in history with more than 13.9 million copies sold. 

Per Forbes and CNN, the single also went on to be declared the most-played song on British radio in the 2010s and even held the record for longest music video at one point, sitting at 24 hours long until Twenty One Pilots broke the record in 2020 with a 177-day-long video.

"When I was about 40, that's when 'Get Lucky,' 'Blurred Lines,' 'Happy,' all of that was the same year," the multihyphenate recalled of the trio of tracks in an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1. "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."

Pharrell has also found success beyond music as a fashion designer with his Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream labels. In 2023, he was chosen as the men’s creative director for Louis Vuitton.