Rick Astley Addresses the Rickroll Phenomenon

If you've never been misdirected to the video for Rick Astley's 1988 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up," you probably aren't reading this. A blogger at the LA Times managed to track Astley down for a discussion about the rickroll.

On the recording, Astley says he knows all about the rickroll phenomenon:

I am aware of it obviously, and I've had various friends over the last, I don't know six months or maybe more email me a link and stuff like this. And YouTube have been onto me about it as well – not me directly, but my manager of the last twenty years...

It's weird, really, because I don't perform much anymore. I do the occasional thing. I'm going to do a few gigs later this year with some other people from the '80s, and it's a bit fun, but I'm not out there every week doing something to do with my former career. So it's a little bit strange.

It's a bit strange anyway, to be honest, to have videos of when you were a young guy out on the internet, do you know what I mean? I'm 42 years old now, so it's a little bit weird anyway. But it's funny. It makes me laugh – I'm sure it really annoys a lot of other people – but it's made me laugh occasionally.

You can hear a recording of the above and hear Astley talk about the Scientology rickroll, the song's unique allure, and whether he's going to capitalize on the whole thing by uploading a new video (probably not, unless someone comes up with a good remix).

See Also:

• http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/02/video-baby-crie.html
• New York Times Gets Pwnd by Fake Rickroll Video
• Rick Astley Invents Cure for Baldness

Photo: TD Promotions