Happy Nice Mall

NEW YORK (AP) – How Rick Astley handles one of his songs being part of the biggest internet meme of all time? He’s obviously rolling with it.

“Listen, let’s face it, ‘I’ll Never Give Up On You’ has kind of turned into something else,” she says. “The video and the song went into the air and became something else, and for that I’m always grateful.”

This song turns 35 this year, and it’s still alive, backed up by a second episode as a gentle joke that someone traps you in with a seductive online link that points you to a video of this 1987 dance-pop smash. His name is Rickrolling.

Thirty-five years later, Astley is performing the song on his 57th “The Mixtape Tour 2022” tour this summer with New Kids on the Block, Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue. A remastered version of her 1987 debut album was also released, of course, along with “Never Gonna Give You Up”.

“I’m never going to have a song this big and I knew it as the song was singing. I thought, ‘We’ll never beat this.’ But I was also like, ‘Well, how bad is that?’ I thought.”

There’s always been so much more to Astley than that song. After booming in the late 1980s, she became disillusioned with show business and only recently resurfaced with their strong “50” albums in 2016 and “Beautiful Life” in 2018.

“Often act two can be more fun because you are in control and enjoying every minute of it,” said Alistair Norbury, head of repertoire and marketing at BMG UK, who signed with Astley.

The passage of time – and the fact that Astley was such a sweet man – softened the sharpness. She says she understands how the past can look different with rose-colored glasses. Rock stars have told her recently that they love her voice.

“And I was like, ‘Really? I thought you would hang me in the village square,” she says with a laugh. “They probably would then, but I think over time, I think it just changes your perspective.”

Astley, 56, is the youngest of the four who grew up near Manchester, England. His sister played a lot of progressive rock and adored David Bowie. A brother was a big Queen fan and remembers Queen’s album “Night at the Opera” played on a loop. Astley has absorbed them all, from Stevie Wonder to The Smiths.

He was in a band at school—they once sang “So Lonely” with Astley on drums and sung by The Police—that wiped the floor with their rivals in a battle of the bands. He used to go to concerts and dream of becoming a music star.

He remembers being shocked one day when he saw the bassist of The Smiths walking around town. “Is it possible?” remembers what he was thinking. “You may be from a town where I bought my records, but last week ‘Top of the Pops?’ You were on the show.”

Astley was just in his early 20s when he recorded his debut album “Whenever You Need Somebody” with the songwriting and record production trio known as Stock Aitken Waterman, who had produced songs for Bananarama and Dead or Alive.

“I sold a lot of records. I was getting a lot of hits and then it got to the point where it was like tap and go – how is this going to go now because you have to make another record?”

Exhausted and frustrated, he walked away at the age of 27. “I guess it wasn’t in me. I did not do. I didn’t want to do that,” she says.

She admires the longevity of pop stars like Madonna or Kylie Minogue. “I actually don’t know how they do it,” she says.

Being a pop star confuses you, and Astley says it happened to her too. “I guess my days were already numbered, but I think I managed to get out before they kicked me out, you know?” He hasn’t performed in 15 years.

Unlike other pop stars, she didn’t invest her ego in her looks or other people’s perceptions. “I’ve never been cool. I wasn’t cool when I had hits,” he says. Astley has nothing but compassion for those trampled by the fame monster. “It must have been incredibly painful.”

Astley re-released in 2016 with “50,” a powerful album that ranged from gospel to electro-funky, hats off to Adele for her age at the time.

Norbury remembers listening to the first few demos on the album and was impressed. He asked Astley’s manager who wrote them. The answer was “Rick Astley”. He asked who the co-author was?” The answer was “Nobody”. Who produced it? “Rick.” Who played all the instruments then? “He played all the instruments”

Norbury says of Astley “he’s probably one of the hardest working people in the business, and he always does it with good humor and in a spirit of collaboration and partnership.”

Rickrolling began in 2007 – in YouTube’s infancy – and initially confused Astley. The song and video “Never Gonna Give You Up” was used as part of an internet trap, but what did it mean?

“I was overthinking it and worrying about it and wondering what it was. And our daughter said to me – she was 15 at the time – ‘Do you realize it had nothing to do with you?’ she said. He also predicted: “Something else will happen next week or tomorrow. ”

“He was a bit wrong because he’s still floating around,” Astley says. “But the feel of what he said was, I think, really, really valuable. I embrace my past, but I don’t have to embrace the Rickrolling thing the same way because I accept the fact that it had nothing to do with me to some degree.”

The song has reached 1.2 billion streams on YouTube and 559 million Spotify listens. Time Out magazine was always a little taken aback by Rickrolling, asking why no one wanted to hear about the live megajam, saying it was “the most exhilarating three and a half minutes in the ’80s canon.”

Astley, of course, sees “Never Give Up on You” differently from people who use it to mess with their friends. He admits the video is “incredibly cheesy from the late ’80s” but “a good memory. It’s like a good memory.”

For Astley, it is the song that takes him to Copenhagen, where he met his wife, Lene Bausager. If it wasn’t for that song, he wouldn’t have a daughter or travel the world. “I’ve been to some of the most amazing places in the world on most people’s to-do lists.”

He thinks back to the days when he was a new artist looking at established acts. Now he’s a seasoned pro, with a plethora of songs, including ones that instantly delight the crowd.