He’s never gonna give us up but that doesn’t mean Rick Astley is actually a fan of the iconic hit single which made him a household name.
That’s right, 80s icon and wowing fans at last year’s epic Glastonbury lineup, Rick reckons his smash hit Never Gonna Give You Up is a ‘s**t song’.
Released in 1987, his debut single topped charts in the UK and worldwide and won the 58-year-old singer with his first —and only — Brit Award.
Rick has become a regular feature in British culture from festival sets to the BBC’s New Year’s Eve celebration with Rylan Clark.
While promoting his new album Are We There Yet?, he revealed he credits the energy of festivals with what catapulting his greatest hit to it’s dizzying heights.
The Together Forever singer said: ‘Festivals – and Glastonbury particularly – have an almost magical ability to elevate s**t songs.
‘It’s basically what happened with Never Gonna Give You Up, suddenly you just find yourself singing along.’
He confessed that at one point he got so ‘ridiculously’ famous he was asked to sign a bible for two nuns when visiting the Italian alps.
‘I just thought, “OK, fine. I’m not sure what’s going on here but that’s just silly.”‘ the icon revealed to The Sun.
‘I signed the first page, but it just made me just think, “OK, that’s what happens when you become like…famous”.’
The song, and Rick himself, had a strange resurgence in 2007 when it became the focus of an internet meme known as the ‘Rickroll’.
Unsuspecting people would be sent the music video, to the point where director Simon West once told Metro.co.uk the entire thing ‘haunts’ him.
Rickrolling has fallen out of popularity but remains a classic meme with the occasional reappearance online.
Two years ago, Rick discussed the meme on Claudia Winkleman’s Radio 2 show and joked: ’I am able to walk down the street, thank heavens.
‘It’s just this mad sort of thing the world that we live in today is so different to how it was back then, you can have this whole other existence on the internet. It doesn’t really interfere with my day-to-day life.
‘I know it has rekindled some interest in that song and obviously that haircut! I can’t explain it to you, it’s really weird.
‘It’s like a double-life, doesn’t mean anything when I got down to the local coffee shop.’
The Whenever You Need Somebody hitmaker, while aware of his fame, did add that he doesn’t appreciate the term ‘national treasure’.
He added to The Sun: ‘When I hear people describe me as a national treasure, I think, “It’s the end of my career”.’
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