Rick Astley: Cool at Last
OK, maybe that’s stretching it, but this interview with Rick Astley and the LA Times on the topic of “Rickrolling” may surprise you. If you’ve ever been reading a blog or message board conversation and been led to a link claiming to be something relevant that turned out to be a YouTube video of Rick Astley singing “Never Gonna Give You Up”, you’ve been Rickrolled. Cute, but even funnier when the pranks are taken offline and the song has been played live at Scientology protests then captured on video.
The interview reveals that Rick Astley is not living in the past, has a sense of humor, thinks Rickrolling is hilarious, and strongly believes that him taking part or trying to capitalize on it falls somewhere between killing the internet magic and being quite sad:
“If some DJ wants to remix Never Gonna Give You Up and put it out as a record, if he did a good job, I’d be flattered…I think the artist themselves trying to remix it is almost a bit sad, really…Either that or I’ll get myself a pseudonym and remix it.”