Adam Sandler Made An Emotional Phone Call Before Including The Chris Farley Tribute Song In His Special

As part of his 100% Fresh comedy special, Adam Sandler recorded a bracingly genuine tribute song to his late SNL and Billy Madison co-star Chris Farley. “The last big hang we had was at Timmy Meadows’ wedding party / We laughed our balls off all night long, all because of Farley,” the lyrics go. “But a few months later the party came to an end / We flew out to Madison to bury our friend / Nothing was harder than sayin’ goodbye / Except watching Chris’s father have his turn to cry.” Feel free to sob — you wouldn’t be the only one.

Sandler and Punch Drunk Love director Paul Thomas Anderson reunited at a For Your Consideration event on Wednesday night in Los Angeles, where the Murder Mystery star confessed that he has a hard time making it through “Farley” without crying. “When I sang it on Saturday Night Live, that was amazingly emotional because I just remember hanging out with him there so much, and how he kind of dominated my life there. I loved him so much, and every cameraman, everyone in the studio loved him so much, so when I sang it there, it was extra heartbreaking. I tried not to cry.” Sandler also said that before including the song in his special, he called Chris Farley’s mom:

“Mrs. Farley was really happy and said, ‘I love that. I love when anybody talks about Chris, but you really knew him, and that would be very special for my family.’ So I had that in my head when we were recording. I had some weird pressure in my head. I just wanted to make sure I did it right and did him justice.”

You can watch Sandler perform “Farley” on SNL below.