Bachelor Nation’s Grocery Store Joe Admits He Was ‘Freaking Out’ After His One-Nighter On ‘The Bachelorette’

Bachelor Nation has fallen in love with Grocery Store Joe. The fan favorite Bachelorette contestant was in the hot seat for Becca Kufrin’s The Men Tell All episode—a rarity for a suitor that didn’t make it past the first rose ceremony— and he once again charmed the audience.

Grocery Store Joe, aka Chicago produce buyer Joe Amabile, admitted to Bachelorette host Chris Harrison that he was surprised by his popularity after Becca sent him home on night one of the ABC dating show. Amabile said he was embarrassed by his short-lived time on The Bachelorette and he warned friends that it was “really bad.” Indeed, Grocery Store Joe’s Bachelorette intro video included the corny line, “I deal in produce, but one thing I haven’t produced yet is love.”

Bachelorette fans know why Joe Amabile didn’t make it past The Bachelorette’s opening night cocktail party. The flustered suitor screwed up his introduction to Becca during the limo meet and greets, so she immediately sent him packing during the first rose ceremony because she could sense he was uncomfortable in front of ABC’s cameras. But viewers immediately fell in love with the nervous suitor.

“Before the show aired, I was freaking out,” Grocery Store Joe told Harrison. “But it went well.”

The former Bachelorette contestant revealed that he still gets a lot of attention from fans who “want to take pictures” with him.

“It’s a good feeling. I wasn’t expecting it. I remember telling my friends [before the show aired], ‘It’s going to be really bad. It went really bad. I was sent home.'”

Chris Harrison, who noted how unusual it is to have such a short-lived suitor get a hot seat segment on Men Tell All, told Amabile, ‘You’re a man of very few words,” to which the grocer shot back with, “I don’t know you too well. You seem like a great guy.”

Joe Amabile recently told People that his sudden fame hit him by surprise after his embarrassing Bachelorette one-nighter.

“It was a better reaction than I thought, I was preparing everybody like, ‘This is going to be really embarrassing.’ And it went pretty well.”

While he said his life is “pretty much the same” since his pre-Bachelorette days, Joe did admit, “I take a lot more pictures!”

Grocery Store Joe didn’t find love with Bachelorette Becca Kufrin, but he will have a second chance on the upcoming season of Bachelor in Paradise. Joe told People “he’s ready” to find someone to settle down with.

You can see Grocery Store Joe on The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All below.

Bachelor in Paradise premieres Tuesday, Aug. 7 on ABC.