The Story Behind ‘Rickrolling’ and How Rick Astley Really Feels About It

Long before it became an online punchline, the track was the hit that launched a pop career. Now, its singer is reflecting on the strange second life the song found online and what it still means to him.

It's one of the internet's longest-running jokes, and even the man at the center of it has fallen victim to it. Rick Astley, the voice behind the '80s hit "Never Gonna Give You Up," originally wasn't thrilled about his song being turned into a meme.

A playful twist on what's more commonly known as "clickbait," rickrolling lures people into clicking a link that appears to lead somewhere worthwhile, only to land them on the song's music video instead. Since the prank caught on, the clip has amassed more than one billion YouTube views.

Astley admitted the prank annoyed him when it first began, and his daughter had to help him warm up to it. In an interview with Fox News, he was asked about being "Rickrolled" himself and whether he had ever pranked anyone else with it.

According to Astley, a friend from California was the first to catch him out with the video, "…before I even knew what it was," he told Fox.

"I'm just like, 'Why is he sending me this?' And my video just suddenly shows up. So I keep asking myself, 'What is he doing?' I remember I was on holiday [with my family] in Italy at the time. I was totally chilled out and I just kept saying to myself, 'I don't need this in my life right now,'" he recalled.

"I just thought it was really weird," Astley continued. "[My friend] works in music…with a lot of guys who are younger than him. So obviously, they're right on the top of everything all the time. Here's a friend of mine who lives on a different continent and is sending me a video that then clicks into my song."

"It was just really weird, and it was something difficult for me to get my head around at first," he admitted. "Let's face it, that video is from a long time ago…and I look like I'm 11 years old and wearing my dad's overcoat. I just didn't get it at first."

He then joked that he has "professionally 'Rickrolled' people many times."

Meme or not, 'Never Gonna Give You Up' will always hold a special place in Astley's heart. "It gave me the life I've got. It gave me everything. I still travel the world because of it. I'm coming to America next year for gigs and stuff because of it. I can't complain," he said.

In pursuit of a "totally private life," Astley stepped away from singing in the early '90s. "After four or five years of hit songs, I didn't know what was going on anymore," he told Gulf News in 2018.

Astley recalled a hectic stretch of hopping from one TV appearance to another, caught up in a seemingly endless cycle of promotion. "I'd get back to my room, somewhere like this, and look at myself in the mirror and go, 'What are you actually doing anymore?'" he recalled.

When no answer seemed good enough, Astley soon bowed out of the spotlight at a remarkably young age, mostly leaving music behind to devote himself to raising his daughter.

"And I never once regretted it," he said. That doesn't mean he didn't miss singing, though. Twenty years ago, he returned to his craft and discovered that fans still held "Never Gonna Give You Up" close to their hearts.

"The first time I ever sang that song was in Tokyo. People there still love it. It brings back wonderful memories," he reflected. "Thank heavens for that song and what came after it because it was game-changing. It totally changed our lives. And it continues to do so."