Pharrell Williams may be a music mogul today, but his first job at McDonald’s wasn’t exactly a resounding success.
Reflecting on his early days, the 51-year-old—now a Grammy-winning artist and fashion entrepreneur worth an estimated $250 million—recalled how his love for McNuggets landed him in trouble during his fast-food stint.
“McDonald’s was my first and only job,” he told BBC Radio 2. “I got fired three times. I was eating the chicken nuggets.”
Pharrell admitted that his McDonald’s career was 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?’”
While his time in fast food ended quickly, Pharrell would go on to achieve monumental success on the Billboard charts, kicking off his musical career in music production duo The Neptunes with Chad Hugo in 1992. In 1999, Pharrell, along with Hugo and drummer Shay Haley, formed the band N.E.R.D and released their debut album, In Search Of… in 2002.
As one of the defining artists of the 2000s, Pharrell has topped the Billboard Hot 100 four times, including a remarkable run with his single “Happy,” which held the No. 1 spot for 10 consecutive weeks in 2014.
Despite his early struggles at McDonald’s, “Happy” demonstrated Pharrell’s knack for creating a hit, leading Billboard’s Digital Songs Sales chart with 402,000 downloads in one week. It also marked his first No. 1 as a lead artist—a milestone that took 12 years and one week from his debut entry, setting a record for the longest wait for a Hot 100 No. 1 as a lead artist.
Pharrell’s talent for creating hits extends beyond his solo work. In 2013, he made Billboard history by holding the No. 1 and No. 2 spots simultaneously with “Blurred Lines” and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” making him only the 12th artist ever to achieve this feat.
His work on these chart-toppers solidified his reputation, earning him the title of Billboard’s “Producer of the Decade” in 2010. His illustrious career has earned him 1,544 weeks across 68 different Billboard charts.
Beyond music, Pharrell’s influence has reached fashion with his Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream labels, and in 2023, he was appointed as the men’s creative director for Louis Vuitton.