Foo Fighters Team Up with Rick Astley to Deliver Unexpected Performance of ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ for Fans”

Foo Fighters have always prioritized having fun, and their London O2 concert was no different. The band Rickrolled their audience with an unexpected appearance by Rick Astley, who performed his signature song “Never Gonna Give You Up”. They blended Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with the chords of Astley’s hit, while the ’80s star added a touch of rock ‘n’ roll to his typically smooth vocals.

The collaboration was surprisingly effective, and fans in the stadium went wild as the band clearly enjoyed themselves. As expected for the originally meme-famous song, online fans also loved it, with the clip reaching 9.1 million views, as shown below.

Astley was 52 at the time of the performance and had already retired from music once by then, but the English pop star’s voice was still impeccable. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl wore a huge smile throughout the performance, clearly delighted to surprise his fans with the rock and pop fusion.

Interestingly, Foo Fighters and Rick Astley share a significant history. Grohl has performed with him several times, most notably when the Foos and Astley spontaneously played “Never Gonna Give You Up” live in Tokyo. Astley has also reciprocated by covering one of the Foo Fighters’ songs in the studio. You can watch Astley’s cover of the Foos’ hit “Everlong” in the video below, which also became a hit online, garnering 5.3 million views.

Astley played acoustic guitar while performing “Everlong”, staying remarkably faithful to the original recording. However, he adds more vocal intensity and dynamics to the song, creating a truly beautiful cover.

During an interview with Virgin Radio UK, Astley revealed that his first performance with the band in Japan was completely spontaneous and unrehearsed. He explained that he was on the same lineup as the Foo Fighters at a festival in Japan. He added that he stood right beside the stage during their set, as Foos members Grohl and Taylor Hawkins are two of his favorite musicians, because “somewhere in my DNA I’m a drummer”, referring to his beginnings in music as a percussionist.

Astley mentioned that a Foo Fighters roadie approached him, handed him a mic, and said “Dave wants you onstage.” The pop star added that he was jet-lagged and a couple of beers in by that point, but he didn’t want to miss the opportunity. Astley then shared another interesting detail, saying “somehow they’d learned “Never Gonna Give You Up” and they’d jammed it”, with the idea of potentially having Astley perform it at the festival.

Astley concluded the story by saying “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”. It was proper nuts.” He then issued a language warning for anyone who might look it up on YouTube, stating “there’s quite a bit of swearing at the beginning of it, because I just lost myself in that moment.”