Rick Astley was just 21 years old when he recorded his 1987 hit, “Never Gonna Give You Up.” It spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and charted for 24 more weeks.
At age 27, he retired from recording music, with no clue that his song would see a resurgence among millennials and Gen Zers decades later. Astley’s song joined Spotify’s “Billions Club” on Monday, surpassing 1 billion streams on the platform.
“I never could have imagined back in 1987 that ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ would still be going strong decades later,” Astley, 59, said in a statement, according to USA Today. “Thanks to streaming platforms, a whole new generation has been able to discover music like mine. Reaching 1 billion streams is something I never dreamed of and to everyone who’s ever listened, thank you.”
Astley’s retirement wasn’t permanent: He released a studio album in 2005, and has released three more since 2016. But his song’s modern popularity is more due to “Rickrolling,” an online bait-and-switch prank where someone is tricked into watching the song’s music video through a misleading link.
Astley first learned about Rickrolling in 2007, when his friend emailed him a YouTube link that brought him to his own music video, he told Vice in 2022. Today, the music video has at least 1.6 billion views on YouTube, and “Never Gonna Give You Up” has stayed relevant enough to be certified five-times platinum in the U.S.
It’s unclear exactly how much money Astley has received from the online phenomenon, with streaming services, distributors and music labels rarely publishing exact payout rates. The singer himself may not care: “I’ve never even tried to find out what was actually made from the YouTube hits. I’ve never really thought about it,” he wrote on Reddit in October 2016.
Astley was already financially comfortable when he retired at 27, he told ITV’s “This Morning” on October 28. More recently, he was paid “a chunk of money” to sing “Never Gonna Give You Up” at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2008, and in a 2015 Virgin Mobile commercial, he wrote on Reddit.
“I have been paid well twice, for rickrolling,” Astley wrote.
Astley’s early retirement was prompted by burnout, he told ITV. He felt so consumed by the business of music that he rarely enjoyed the feeling of being a musician, he said.
“I was going to America to do a big TV show in New York, and I developed a fear of flying,” said Astley. “I didn’t want to get on planes anymore, which is hard to be an international pop star if you won’t fly.”
His music-making hiatus gave him a relative degree of off-stage anonymity that he’s since embraced, he told Vice.
“I’ve done way more gigging in the last 15 years than I did when I was famous. I’m a lot happier than when I was having my hits,” said Astley. “It’s kind of perfect because, even though I’ve just sung for 10,000 people, and they’ve sung most of the words back to me … when I go to the bar, one person might recognize me. Sometimes none — it’s amazing.”
