Dale Earnhardt Jr. Explains How Nerve-Racking It Is to Meet Jay Z and Beyoncé

Yes, even famous people get nervous when they meet Jay Z and Beyoncé.

It’s always a little weird when you hear about one famous person being nervous to meet another famous person. Like, dude, you have millions of fans who freak the f*ck out whenever you come around. How could you possibly be nervous to meet someone else who has the same thing?

But even with that in mind, it’s hard to blame Dale Earnhardt Jr. for being "scared to death" the first time he got the chance to meet Jay ZandBeyoncé—at the same time. Even though the meeting took place back in 2006 when Jay Z and Beyoncé were famous but not nearly as famous as they both are today, they were still, well, Jay Z and Beyoncé, and anyone meeting them for the first time would have been a little bit nervous as all hell.

During a recent interview with Noisey, Earnhardt Jr. was asked to talk about some of the music videos he has appeared in, and he detailed the appearance he made in Jay Z’s 2006 video for "Show Me What You Got," the first single from Kingdom Come. The legendary NASCAR driver called it the "most memorable" music video he’s even taken part in, and he said the idea of him being in the video and driving Jay around in it as they raced against Danica Patrick "still sounds crazy to this day." He also spoke specifically about the moment he met Jay and Beyoncé and said it was a stomach-churning experience because of how nervous he was.

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"We were racing in New Hampshire that weekend and my manager was like, 'Do you want to be in a Jay Z video?' I said, 'Of course, who wouldn’t want to do that?'" said Earnhardt Jr., who was asked to take a flight to Monaco right away to be in the video. "I was super nervous, like, I gotta go it, I can’t turn this down, scared to death. So we fly to Monaco overnight, get there, it’s about eight in the morning. I’m walking up to the location we’re gonna shoot in. Jay Z’s sitting on this wall on the side of the street, just hanging out, so we talk, and Beyoncé walks up. She must have been shopping, she had a couple bags in her hands, looked like she was having a great time. So we got introduced to her as soon as I got off the plane, pretty much. I worked with Jay Z all day long, and we ended up going to dinner with him and Beyoncé that night. It was just an incredible 24 hours."

Earnhardt Jr. said, despite his nerves, he was able to keep it together, and while he admitted that he was starstruck for much of their first meeting, he said he was pleasantly surprised by how down-to-earth Jay Z and Beyoncé both were.

"I’ve watched them and admired them from the same distance as everyone else," he said. "I would think about how incredible it would be to have a conversation with them, or that they would know who I was! And for that to be a reality is incredible. Today I think about it and I still can’t believe it happened. But they were completely approachable, comfortable, normal, conversational, a lot of fun."

If Earnhardt Jr. was this nervous about meeting Jay Z and Beyoncé, can you imagine how you would handle it?

You can check out Earnhardt Jr.’s full Q&A with Noiseyhere. He also spoke about his first concert, the time he appeared in a Kid Rock video, and more.

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