Rick Astley is not enjoying the fame he recently gained because of the "Rickroll" meme.
For over a decade, Astley has been surely seeing the meme which initially started in 2007. Rickroll or rickrolling involves pranking someone by showing a part of the music video for Astley's hit 1987 song, "Never Gonna Give You Up."
Although the meme's popularity put him back in the spotlight, the singer opened up about how gaining people's attention through the meme seems to be a little strange.
Speaking with BBC Radio 2 host Claudia Winkleman (via Yahoo! Life), he met his whole other existence on the internet after the clip went viral.
"It doesn't really interfere with my day-to-day life. I know it has rekindled some interest in that song and obviously that haircut," Astley said. "I can't explain it to you, it's really weird. It's like a double life, doesn't mean anything when I got down to the local coffee shop."
The 56-year-old first dropped the song in 1987, pushing him to earn the Brit Award for Best British Single a year later. It was also certified platinum due to its fame and became number one in several countries' charts.
He retired from the music industry in the 1990s but returned in 2000. Since then, he has released new music occasionally. As of press time, he is working on a single alongside New Kids on the Block, Salt-N-Pepa, and En Vogue.
How Rick Astley's Rickrolling Started
Before TikTok arrived, the meme already existed as duckrolling in 2006 on the forum site, 4Chan. It then evolved into Rickrolling soon after "Gand Theft Auto IV" was released.
The trend caused the music video to reach 1.1 billion views and 13 million likes.
Initially, Astley was annoyed by the idea of Rickrolling. But his daughter eventually told him that the trend was cool since it could keep him in the spotlight; it has been decades since the song was released.
The singer himself talked about a Rick-Roll moment eventually ahead of Jason Sudeikis' Super Bowl Ad. In February, he told PopCulture that he was informed that his hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up" would be used in the most recent season of "Ted Lasso."
"I thought it was absolutely incredible. It was amazing. Because that song obviously has been used in so many different ways, which is great and I am not complaining in any way, shape or form," he went on.
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