He’s known for his good-humoured, down-to-earth and affable personality – and now he’s telling his own honest story as he opens up about the highs and lows of being an 80s music legend
Rick Astley admits that his famous 1987 hit made him feel like he’d hit the jackpot. “Becoming that guy who sang Never Gonna Give You Up was like winning the lottery,” he says of the song that gave him all the money he ever needed. “Maybe for about 15 seconds I might have been almost as famous as David Bowie .”
Rick, 58, writes about his childhood and pop career in his autobiography, Never. One of five children – one of his brothers died from meningitis as a young child – he was brought up in the little town of Newton-le-Willows in Merseyside by a volatile father, whose violent outbursts left the children in fear, and a mother who was emotionally detached from her offspring.
In his teens Rick joined FBI, a band performing in pubs in the north-west, who started to make a name for themselves. By lucky coincidence, a local hairdresser was dating music producer Pete Waterman, who saw Rick sing and plucked him out of obscurity. People recognise Rick when he’s out and about, but it doesn’t irritate him and he’s tolerant even if he’s out with friends and family, agreeing to selfies with strangers.
“There’s a generation who love 1980s or early 1990s and weren’t even there. We used to run a mile from our parents’ music, but today younger people don’t have the same hang-up about liking something.”
Kylie Minogue Gary Barlow David Bowie Foo Fighters
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