Next time you go to McDonald's, take a closer look at your server -- it could be R. Kelly.

The R&B singer manned the drive-through window for three hours late Saturday night at a St. Louis McDonald's following his show at the Savvis Center, to the astonishment and delight of fans in the neighborhood.

At first, Kelly just tried to convince the manager of the McDonald's, which was in the midst of closing since it was midnight, to stay open long enough to feed him and his crew. But then Kelly persuaded the manager to take him on as a very short-term employee to work the drive-through window.

"He just loves working behind the counter," Kelly's spokesperson Allan Mayer confirmed. "He gets a kick out of it, I guess as a way to interact with fans without it being totally crazy."

Kelly has worked a sneak-attack shift at McDonald's before -- he previously told MTV News that he pulled this same stunt once in Atlanta while working on the Loveland album (which was never released) there two and a half years ago. "I came to the window and said, 'Can I take your order?' and people are like, 'Yeah, give me a whatever.' They'll take their order and then they'll leave," Kelly laughed at the time. "And I'm looking them dead in their face. A lot of people look at me and can't believe it's me. They just walk right past me."

This time, however, Kelly didn't get to work in anonymity. Word spread quickly around the neighborhood, and the fast-food franchise was swarmed with fans who wanted to be served by Kelly, his spokesperson said.

Kelly has long professed a love for the Golden Arches, since it conjures up childhood memories for him. It's not uncommon for Kelly to have the tour bus pull over for a quick pit stop when he sees a McDonald's, or to hang out at the Rock and Roll McDonald's in Chicago in his own 'hood. And most of this stems from reminiscing about his late mother, with whom he used to spend every morning at the fast-food joint.

"She'd fix a cup of coffee," he told "Primetime Live" in a segment that aired earlier this month. "She'd wear this cheap lipstick. She'd leave this red lipstick ring around my cup. And I'd turn that around and drink that part, taste lipstick and coffee at the same time. 'Cause if I could, I would have married my mom. But you know, she turned me down ... Those are the things that my mother and I shared."