How the Iconic Rick Astley Song ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ Became the Infamous ‘Rickroll’ Meme

Rick Astley spoke with Vice about his experience recording his hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up”, how the song was written, how it shot to number one, and how the sudden fame and fortune caused him to step away from the music business forever, at least that’s what he thought.

A lot of the things that I really loved about music and wanting to make music had no relevance anymore. I just felt like a traveling salesman who could be selling nuts, to be honest. …Taking somebody who is in obscurity and turning them into a face that the world recognizes in an extremely short period of time is not good for people. It does actually kill people. …I want to be at home with my daughter, you know. I was literally on the motorway.I said, “We’re going to have to turn around. I need to go home.” And that’s what I did.

That should have been the end of it, but in 2007, Shawn Cotter, a Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force invented the infamous “Rickroll” meme.

In 2007, I was a young military airman. I had a passion for computers and Internet and meme culture, and I was trying to be a YouTuber at the time. I first discovered “Never Gonna Give You Up” …I immediately knew that I wanted to make this thing into a meme.There was a common meme on the Internet called the Duck Roll. You get a link sent to you and you get this picture of just a duck with wheels and it just says “duckroll.” Duck Roll became Rick Roll.

This led to Astley’s comeback and an appreciation for who is is now.

The Rick Roll is a joke, but I’ve never taken it personally that people are taking the piss out of me. They might be making a joke about that guy in that video, but that isn’t personal to the person I am today or have been for 30 years, really… It’s been great in terms of getting people to kind of hear that song.

Astley has also embraced the song itself.

And “Never Gonna Give You Up” is my biggest song, always has been, always will be. There’s just no getting away from it. And I’ve sort of come full circle and now can embrace it for what it is fully.

Astley Spoke With Larry King About the Meme

Astley Performing the Song at Glastonbury 2023