The Foo Fighters pulled off one of their wildest surprises at a London show when they brought out Rick Astley to sing Never Gonna Give You Up and the crowd could not believe it. They blended the chords with a bit of Nirvana energy and Astley just leaned right into it like he had been doing rock shows for years.
People in the stadium were screaming and laughing because it just worked somehow, even though nobody expected it. Fans online also loved it, and the clip ended up getting millions of views, which is no surprise for a song that has become a huge meme.
Astley was 52 at the time and had already stepped away from music once but his voice still sounded strong. Dave Grohl looked thrilled the whole time and you could see how much fun he was having watching fans react to the unexpected mashup.
There is a bit of history between the two because they have performed together before. One of the most memorable times was in Tokyo when the band suddenly launched into Never Gonna Give You Up and Astley just went with it onstage.
Astley later told the local radio that he had no clue it was going to happen and that he had only been standing at the side of the stage because he wanted to watch the band. He said: “Dave wants you onstage” and he just grabbed the mic even though he was jet lagged and had a couple of beers.
He also said that the band had somehow learned Never Gonna Give You Up and jammed it earlier which shocked him. According to Astley they played it loose and loud and it led to him singing in front of about 50000 people in a strange and fun version of the song.
Astley said: “so I ended up singing to 50,000 people with the Foo Fighters on a weird and wonderful version of Never Gonna Give You Up” and he laughed about how chaotic the moment felt. He warned that the video has some swearing at the start because he just let go in the moment and got swept up in the crowd.
