Yahoo News Rick Astley's 'broken' admission as he shares life changing moment
Rick Astley has shared the chance encounter that changed the direction of his life. The 58-year-old shot to stardom in 1987 with the iconic song, Never Gonna Give You Up, that cemented his place in music history.
The distinctive 80s pop hit has a timeless quality that has transcended generations with Rick proving popular with younger generations due to the internet phenomenon of Rick Rolling. The musician, who hails from Newton le Willows, has told the story of his life in the limelight in a new memoir, Never, which is released on October 10.
Rick's music career got underway aged 19 when he joined a band named FBI, who performed in pubs and social clubs in the North West. However, his ascent to superstardom happened because of a lucky coincidence when a local hairdresser was dating famous music producer, Pete Waterman. The Pop Idol judge saw Rick sing, plucked him out of obscurity – and the rest is history.
The musician was recruited to be part of the famous Stock Aitken Waterman label and was aged 21 when he found a global audience with Never Gonna Give You Up. He told the PA News Agency he will be forever be grateful for the pop classic as he said: "Becoming that guy who sang Never Gonna Give You Up was like winning the lottery. Maybe for about 15 seconds I might have been almost as famous as David Bowie.”
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His success brought him more than he could have ever imagined, but Rick said he has never been the materialistic type. He said: "I’ve never been the kind of guy who’s got two Ferraris on the drive and I’m about to drive one into a swimming pool.
"I’m not that motivated by stuff. My main motivation about having money is being comfortable and being quite protected, which comes from my strange, erratic upbringing.”
Rick was one of five children and suffered tragedy when one of his brothers died from meningitis as a young child. He was brought up in the Merseyside town of Newton le Willows by a volatile father, Horace, aka Ozzy, whose rages and violent outbursts left the children in fear and whose mother, Cynthia, remained emotionally detached from her offspring.
The musician told PA how he is keen to put the violent outbursts into perspective as he reflects on the incident. He said: "There was a lot of love there from my dad, and from my mum, they just weren’t amazing at always making me feel that. They were broken themselves. I was craving normality.”
Rick said his idea of success in the music industry was to have stability in his life as he said: "I didn’t do this in a mercenary way to make some money, bank it and buy a nice house – that’s just a by-product. But I definitely was motivated to do something to obtain my own independence because I didn’t want to be at the behest of my dad and the way he saw things and did things.”
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However, his fame did come at a cost as he juggled being a touring musician with being a husband to Lene Bausager and dad to their daughter, Emilie. Rick stepped away from the limelight and sought therapy, which had a positive impact.
He said: "I gained some sanity first because I’d been in a tumble dryer for four or five years of being famous worldwide. If you go back before the internet, being famous everywhere was a shock. Everything I did in the UK I did in 25 countries or more, in terms of the workload.
“I wouldn’t call it a nervous breakdown, but I was a bit broken. I don’t think you can push somebody through a sausage machine like that for five years without there being a bit of residual fallout at the end of it.”
He added: “Like any couple, my wife and I went through certain situations. I was a pain in the a*** sometimes because I went from playing an arena in Tasmania to becoming this guy who lives in a very nice house in Richmond and wants to drop his daughter off at school.”
Rick and his wife are still together and he is enjoying his peaceful life in Richmond, South West London. The musician's career is now firmly back on track as he had a number one album again with 50 in 2016.
Rick is excited for the next chapter as he continues to connect with new generations of fans. He said: “The last time we played Manchester Arena I looked around the audience and most are of an age who were there when the early records were out the first time, but there’s a creeping feeling that some of these people are definitely not old enough to be here.
“There’s a generation who love 1980s or early 1990s and weren’t even there. We used to run a mile from our parents’ music, but today younger people don’t have the same hang-up about liking something.” Never by Rick Astley is published on October 10 by Macmillan, priced £25
