Taylor Swift wanted to get "Hot in Herre" in 2002, and apparently paid big bucks to do it. Two of her wedding guests, Nelly and Ashanti, recently sat down with The Breakfast Club, where they talked about their relationship with the singer, and the rapper shared a hilarious story about the time Swift hired him for a three-minute show.
© GettyAccording to the rapper, he's known her for years through her management, but one night he got a phone call "out of the blue" from the pop star, who wanted him to fly from St. Louis to Houston.
© Dilip Vishwanat/LP5"Listen, man, that woman called me one night, just out of the blue, and said, 'Yo, Nelly, listen, my friends and me, we made a routine to 'Hot in Herre' last night, right" he recalled. "I want to ask you a really big favor."
© GettyAccording to Nelly, "She said, I got two shows in Houston tomorrow and the next day. Can you come down to Houston and just perform it?"
Swift told him, "I don't want to disrespect you," explaining that she didn't "really have a budget" for the appearance. But she offered to send her private jet, cover his hotel, and pay him $50,000.
Nelly's response was just as memorable. “Can you put that in a McDonald's bag?” he recalled asking her, adding that he would have done it for free.
© Dilip Vishwanat/LP5She "sent the G5, not four, five," picked up him and the kids and flew them down to Houston because she was doing several nights at the baseball stadium in front of 56,000 people.
After three minutes, three minutes, he said her longtime manager, Robert [Allen], came out and tossed him a McDonald's bag full of $50,000. He also hooked them up with the presidential suite at a hotel by the stadium, but they never used it because they left after the show.
© GettyThe story dates back to 2011, when Taylor was just 21 and already well beyond the early days of her career. She had released her self-titled debut in 2006, won four Grammys for Fearless in 2010, and was in the middle of her Speak Now era.
By then, she had sold more than 20 million albums worldwide and was selling out major arenas and stadiums. So she was already very much Taylor Swift, even if she was still telling Nelly she didn't have much of a budget.
© Dilip Vishwanat/LP5The friendship didn't end with one McDonald's bag. Nelly and Taylor reunited for surprise performances during her Red and 1989 tours, and he and Ashanti were among the guests at her wedding to Travis Kelce in July.
During the interview, Nelly also pushed back on the idea that the wedding's star-studded guest list was simply a collection of celebrities, pointing out that she has been in the business for a long time and has built genuine friendships along the way
He also pointed out that Kelce could go down as the greatest tight end of all time, meaning the couple's combined circle of friends is huge.
