Rick Astley: The Truth About Never Gonna Give You Up, Shocking Confessions & Return To Stardom

0:28Have you seen his arse? And me, Pete. And you, Ross. And me, Ross. I know you don't like starting with my boring tones, but you take too long. I was just... Faffing round. Good stuff to do. She's ironing you up. Ironing you up. I'm a-looking, I'm a-liking. Yeah, so, have you got any... What have you been up to?

0:54That was so awkward. so Pete went to the NFL yes we went to talk about this Peter Harder the Gump not great what a great day that is the NFL I took my little boy Jack he loved it great atmosphere you know really good atmosphere yeah was it at Tottenham? it was at Spurs yeah but yeah like I didn't think I'd like it even the game I thought was very it was quite fast paced quite dynamic yeah when you look at it on TV it's very stop starting and I'm thinking I can't get into this a game that can continue stops but I was pleasantly surprised how much I really enjoyed the game yeah it was so funny because we were I was out with the kids at the golf club and we were all watching it on TV yeah and we were all waiting for Pete to do his half time kick I was doing the kick of destiny have you seen like Gavin and Stacey where they're all waiting for Mick and he comes and he goes yeah they cut him out so we're all like this watching this fricking game for about three hours and they're all talking and then it doesn't even show Pete.

2:00You can see him on the big screen in the corner. And I'm like, we're all like, oh my God, we were waiting for that. Yeah, it was on the stadium. It was obviously all around the stadium. Yeah. But yeah, it felt quite nerve wracking actually. But I fucking missed it, didn't I? So what was it? I missed it. I missed it. Thankfully Paddy Power. Because I got it, it was a hundred grand for charity. Yeah. Like, I thought I'd put it wide. and yeah I mean you know it's not the first I put it wide at Tottenham Pete you hit the bar that's still a huge huge achievement I remember I used to say that to me I've hit the bar from like three yards out so much harder to hit the bar but trying to make me feel better it is isn't it like the bar's only that thick if you think about it yeah it is harder you know it's on target at least it's true yeah thanks babe I appreciate that I feel bad about my weekly wine now.

2:56Go on. Go on. Well, I mean, you didn't even notice, but all three of the lads noticed, but I walked in and chatted to you. I think I was talking about 10 seconds. When? No, you had no idea because you're on your phone. 10 seconds, I reckon I was talking. And then I just sat down and went, cool chat, mate. Oh, I heard that, cool chat. You still didn't sit. We just let it hang inside. You actually had a direct question. I heard you say cool chap that was just before I didn't know you were speaking to me yeah I know I know you didn't know but I'm just saying to you that's the kind of thing that's going on like when you're on your phone I'm trying to talk to you but I've got I've got I've got you've always got stuff to do you know you think you know I'm not on like Net-A-Porter shopping I'm I'm on Porcelanosa yeah I'm on I'm sorting the logistics out for the weekend and it's a nightmare what are you doing this weekend?

3:52just kids in various tournaments competitions you know pizza at work it's like then there's parties and you know I've only got two pair of hands yeah you have two pair of hands one pair of hands two hands Dr. Strange over there emphasis on the strange I mean two hands two pairs of hands oh show your mouth Abigail do you have a weekly one for our piece uh a bit of twat in general yeah no I haven't that's nice oh yeah I have I have I have yours actually goes yours is in the same vein of the not listening so Pete goes upstairs you know I'm doing the boys room upstairs yeah and all the banisters gone yeah because the change in the banister to the same as the banister downstairs but I had a whole conversation with Pete should I do it and he said yeah so then when I'm showing him the progress of the room he comes in and he's like where's the fucking banister and I'm like are you messing I literally I was like I literally showed you the banister like in pictures do you like this I must have been somewhere else do you like this banister babe love it get it order it do what you want banisters don't excite me as much as you I just think we've got like trigger words haven't we as men banisters shut it down shut it down shut it down you know what I mean I think as a man I think that's just something how we were wired up if I hear the word banister I'm going to switch off seriously if I say Sam look at his banister you're going to come over and go what the fuck how the fuck am I getting out of this one I'm surprised you even know what bloody banister is I know Roger Banister who's the first person to do a mile in under five minutes I believe okay cool fun fact mile on what running running surely it'd be four minutes a four minute mile isn't it Was it the four minute mile?

5:52Yeah, that's a thing, the four minute mile. So yeah, Roger Bannister was the first person to do a mile. I'm not going to fuck check it. That's my type of Bannister.

6:02Yeah, so on that vein of not listening, there was someone on Instagram the other day, it was very, very funny. So she said, my husband said something unbelievably groundbreaking the other day and something I've never ever really thought of it like this before. So she said that, she said to her husband, I'm really struggling with this particular problem at the moment what was the problem well I don't know what the problem was but she's saying to her husband I've got this problem this is and explained it to her husband and he was half watching the telly and said just don't worry about it so she's gone that was I just never thought to do that to just not worry about it but that's your that's your answer to everything exactly that's what I mean I just think sometimes you're doing something else and you're hearing something and you're hearing you feel like you need to say something you do that to me on the phone all the time so i'll be telling you a story and i know you're not listening because over the whole story you'll go yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah don't worry about it just stop thinking about it babe no but i'm like why are you even saying yes it doesn't match what i'm saying like that doesn't match the conversation yeah yeah literally so yes or no answer yeah yeah can you make a decision yeah I can make decisions okay hi Abby Crouching Tudor Bob Ross first of all love the pod always makes me laugh I was listening to today's pod with interest while Abby was talking about her draconian rules around her whatsapp groups I was so impressed with our idea about keeping you all organised with a brilliant idea of a group letting you all know what you're all doing tomorrow daily reminders daily reminders that you can all look at the night before then it dawned on me isn't that just a calendar but without reminders keep up the good work Paul it's a great point really good point from Paul there it's a great point from Paul but if you see our calendar it's like someone has like emptied a pack of skittles onto your phone like it's like all colour coded there's 7 million things on each day there's so I just think the daily reminders the night before from Claire is just the way forward because I can't my brain I don't know what's wrong with me I think I've got that sad thing seasonal effectiveness disorder yeah you want to say you've often just got on a nice holiday don't you like I don't want to spend money on anything but holidays I do I haven't really there's nothing I really like to spend money on apart from your wife no she likes apart from the whole freaking apart from the whole did Sally's got like 10, he's got like 50 polo necks sometimes, and that's only on one rail.

8:54No one else cleaned out his wardrobe. Yeah, yeah. And they all got the tags on. All got the tags on. He's got five of the same jumper in the same colour. It's like Simon Cowell, but roll neck. Simon Cowell, the roll neck world. He's got the cheek to say I don't spend anything. I reckon there's about 10 million pounds worth of clothes in that wardrobe. Not even joking. Yeah, but that's been built up over the years. Have they all got the freaking tax on? Yeah, well, I didn't know that I had them. That Luke must see you coming. And go, here he is. Here's me Christmas bonus. Colour blind. Did you see that thing I sent you?

9:31I was crying my eyes out about that old man who saw colour for the first time. Oh, yeah. When he puts the glasses on. I've seen that video. It's lovely, isn't it? I was crying watching that in bed. God, that must be incredible. It must be. It's like me when I could smell again. Your polyps. Yeah. God, it is a great feeling, smelling. The lady said to me, she was like, how are you even living? You can't smell taste. It's insane. She was like, how have you been through that? But he has to have the injection and he has to inject himself into fat. And it's literally impossible. There's no fat. I'm like, are you going to have to do it on your tongue?

10:14There's literally no, like I can pinch it. I'm struggling for fat. Or more than an inch everywhere on me, about 10 inches. Can't you plug it in your ass? Yeah, the ass is okay. No, have you seen his ass? Like two eggs and a hunky. Are you gone? No, you can't. Yeah, but you camera me for my flabby ass. No, it's not me, it's Sophia. I thought flabby, it's saggy, there's a difference. Sophia can't get over. Having a really nice light on my ass there. You need to do squats. Fucking hell. I need to do squats myself. Luckily these jeans are just keeping them tight in. Listen, I haven't got much fat on me, unfortunately.

10:50Hi, Abby, Pete and Ross. Just had to share my weekly shine because it's a story I never thought I'd tell. After both being married before, I met my forever person at 50. And with him came an incredible bonus, an eight-year-old son. For someone who's battled endometriosis for 30 years and couldn't have children, being a step-mom was a dream come true. And then plot twist, two weeks ago, this man who swore he'd never marry again proposed. My weekly shine is never give up on true love. We both refuse to settle. And at 54, I found a love I still fall deeper into every day, even when he's yelling at the football or explaining why golf is relaxing.

11:30Your podcast has been a huge part of my journey from endo recognition to relationship advice to help me understand my finance obsessed sport crazy boyfriend. You've made me laugh, cry and feel so seen. Here's to love, second chances, step-mum life and providing the best plot twists can still come from Tracy. How nice a message is that? It's a lovely message, isn't it? Lovely. Our listeners write well, don't they? They certainly do. Yeah, that was really nice. Not better than true love, though. True love never dies. It just certainly doesn't. It's hard to find, so.

12:12you're my true love you're my true love god I need to speak most of the time do you mean most you can't have a you can't have unconditional love and choose times that you don't no I do I love you good boring hi google me crouching chute of Bob Ross what did you say hi google me crouching chute of Bob Ross let's let's get this Nickname ramped up, please. I like it. I didn't say that. I love how my words get misused through. Google me. Google me. Keep up the great work. Love the podcast and Crouchy's other one. I am listening to you talk about how annoying it is when people beep at you for making a mistake.

13:02I'm a driving instructor and I can't believe the number of people who beep at my learner when they stall the car. Normally happens at roundabouts. picture the scene a learner who's really nervous trying their hardest to get moving rushing because they're so conscious of holding up other drivers that they stall for the second time I tried to calm them down by saying don't worry everyone makes mistakes relax and take your time everyone knows you're a learner mainly because I have L plates and a roof box what's a roof box? you know like the learner now there's two things I'm considering having on a sign that I can lower in the back window.

13:41How the fuck do you think that's helping, number one? And number two, just because you left too late and are now rushing, that's not our problem. Meanwhile, I'm now having twice as hard job to calm down the learner and get them moving. Rant over from Paul. He sounds like a nice driving instructor. He does, Paul, doesn't he? You know, my driving instructor said he was going to kill me. I know. Big man had to get on the phone, didn't you, Pete? I know. He took me down like a country lane and went... Took my foot down, didn't I? He took me down a country lane and went, I could kill you now I had to call him up and say what the fuck I was like I was like that 18 in the car like with no money because I forgot my pen talking to a young girl on her own like that yeah it's not what's funny what did he say it was just a joke just a joke yeah and then he said did he get out a load of sandwiches as well have you had no lunch you had this one oh yeah yeah I've had she was starving right I forgot my purse there was no Apple Pay I don't even think there was bloody iPhones back in them days and we used to go to the cafe in Tesco for a sausage sandwich because I went on a crash course it was like five hours a day and one day I forgot my money and I was like do you mind can you get my lunch and I'll give you back tomorrow and he said no and then bought the sandwich ate it in front of me and I was sitting there like that not a sip of water what a scumbag I know strange that is strange behavior but hilarious anecdote for the podcast Oh, fantastic.

15:07So I'm very excited about today's guest. Never gonna give you up. Never gonna let you down. Never gonna run around and desert you. How did you get every single word? I do. Period, you're so completely. I think we all got it wrong. I didn't. It's a great song though. Never gonna give you up. Never gonna let you down. Never gonna run around and hurt you. He does say desert you as well. Yeah. Well, I was already ahead of you. dessert I'll give you dessert in a minute that'd be the first time you've just had a chocolate rice and crispy cake greedy bitch alright Rick Astley

15:51Rick Astley hey thank you there's a lot of people behind the scenes and in front of the scenes very excited about this today well I'm very excited too so that's a lot of us can I just say how incredible you lot because I know you've got a big birthday coming up in fair I have indeed, 60 soon. And you look younger than us. Come on, I really appreciate that. Thank you. I think it's, I've been super lucky in my life over a lot of things. One is that I've managed to keep my hair. I know, your hair's lovely. It's a great head of hair. Thank you, thank you, love. All the guys in my family have all got great hair, you know.

16:25But also I think it's that thing about I was just super lucky as a kid, made a bit of money and that took the pressure off a lot of the stress and strife that most people have on a weekly basis, monthly basis, do you know what I mean? I've never had any of that. What's happened to you then? You're not stressed either. No, I'm sitting next to you every week. So how are things for you at the moment? Really good. I mean, I've had a bit of a year off this year. We've done a few funky little gigs, like a few corporates, and we did a swing show in Henley, which was amazing because I love doing that.

17:00it's like a it's like a i don't know a free pass really i get to do my job but it's not my job if you know what i mean and um and also we did a thing uh where i went and did a 20 year celebration with youtube wow in can darling by the way on the beach and um and i did a set for them and um niall rogers and chic did the night before me and it was a really great like few days and i met a load of uh youtubers as well and like a couple of which i had no clue who they were yeah and like they've got it's a whole new world oh my god they've got millions and millions of followers for doing something usually or sometimes it's pretty odd yeah you know like there was a girl who did um a woman or i should say who did uh motorcycle stunts and like half my band going yeah yeah we all follow her i'm like what's going on so it's like the kids now they know all of these like youtubers and like it's a completely different world it is it's a it's kind of numbers like when you compare it to music like some of these youtubers have got a million more tens of millions more followers than the beatles or yourself and well i think that's the thing i think if you're it's like music is a young person's game as well i think to be honest if you look at the really massive streamers they're all still pretty young if you go to the beatles or the Stones or the people who kind of built the music industry, if you like, they stream really well.

18:23Of course they do, but it's nothing like Taylor Swift. It's nothing like Harry Styles. It's nothing, because it's a young person's game. And I kind of think it should be, really. I'm sort of thinking that's where it should be, you know. But anyway, YouTube has obviously been pretty good to me, I think, one way or another, because it keeps playing that video one way or another. And so it was just really great to do that. And we actually did a few covers as well, like some of the biggest YouTube songs ever. I love doing covers and I think it's I think it's well it reminds me of being a kid for one thing because that's how you all learn anyway playing other people's songs but also it kind of makes you do something you wouldn't normally do you know either vocally or musically or whatever it just puts you in a different box you know what I mean so it's nice doing covers it's kind of scary I had a bit of a faux pas this this weekend it was my our friend's 50th yeah and I had to sing a duet with them oh yeah and it all went completely what did you say it's it's a song from this news a disney zombie movie it's called zombies i know so i had to learn the song i've been learning the song why that song because it was dan's favorite song oh so his wife said and it turns out dan didn't know one word he's about to be 50 and he's watching disney movies on his own exactly well nothing wrong with that but i love a disney movie it couldn't have got ross how bad was it it went so wrong because they had like a kind of auto cue karaoke thing okay which was completely out of time oh okay you know everyone had been drinking dan was pissed oh good you know so it i was in a cheerleader outfit singing a song i got complete stage fright no it was a nightmare how many people was in front of them about 200 people oh really all right so quite a big party Yeah.

20:01Big party. Okay. But Av can sing, by the way. Sorry? Av can sing. Oh, really? She's a very good singer. She is very good. I can't. I can't. Have you ever actually, like, had a go properly in the studio and stuff? Yes. She was in a band. Oh, okay. All right. Okay. No, no. It was... I'll be Googling that later. No. I absolutely love to sing. Music is my biggest passion. Right. And, yeah, but I'm a failed pop star. failed author well sorry I didn't realise I didn't realise you've done that no it's not in the public domain oh ok no no ok I'll find it don't you I know people do you know what I mean well obviously you do you know play all the instruments yourself I have done yeah on these last few records yeah I mean that is that's an incredible talent well thank you but I also play with great musicians and I've worked with great musicians over the years and I can recognise what a great musician is and I'm not one.

21:01I'm one of those people who leave me in a dark room on my own for long enough. I can make something that sounds kind of like a record. And I also think sometimes some of the greatest bands, I think, haven't necessarily been the best musicians. They've been the sum of their parts. Somebody who is perhaps not the greatest bass player might have been in one of the bands that we all absolutely love and all the rest of it and it wouldn't have happened without him. So it's more the attitude and the energy that guy's got or that girl's got sometimes than the actual proficiency with the instrument. And that's what I'm hiding behind.

21:32I'm just going to say. So yeah, I can play. But for instance, like, you know, this summer, I haven't really done many gigs, like I say, at all, all this year, in fact. And so when I go in my little garage at the back of the house and I get the guitar out of something, I literally have to remind myself almost how to, I can play, of course I can. But I mean, I'm not one of those guys, like all my guys and girls, it's ridiculous. We get in the rehearsal room and I throw a cover at them and say, should we play this this summer? and they just all just play it. They just hear it once or they've heard it on the radio over the last few weeks or whatever.

22:02So talented. And they just, they know what key it's in, they just play it straight away and I'm like, how do you do that? How do you do that? My brother listens to a song once and then he can just play it. I think you're doing yourself a slightly service. I think you're doing yourself a different... Was it Highway to Hell you were doing with the drums? I did start as a drummer. That's how I got in a band at school and I did sing a bit as well but I was the drummer and wanted to be the drummer to me. So I was kind of, I was quite happy just being behind the drums because it's kind of a protected space.

22:27And, but yeah, so I still, I'm still not a drummer. I think what it is, you know what? I could compare it, you know, to any athlete, elite, you know, sports person. Once you're at that level, the level, everything else just crumbles into dust. It's like, you know, there's some great people who come through and they're there, but they just don't, they're not at that level. And I know that some of the guys and girls I've worked with over the years are at that level and it's a different level it's something else and it's you you see it in sport on tv every week you see it in everything there's just that tiny little bit extra and that's what people want to see that's what they pay the books for that's what you know what i mean it's just a different thing so my thing is like it my records are as good as they're gonna get they ain't gonna get any better because i've played on them but i'd like to you know if i ever got records that people are still playing 40 years later yeah for sure yeah i didn't obviously i didn't like yeah i mean the that big never going to give you up song whatever that that is that song i didn't write it i didn't produce it i had very little to do with it other than singing it to be honest um it was written specifically for me i was in the building i was making tea for dead or alive and banana rama to be honest because i'm dying to dig into these days either well i've been i've It's been signed by this guy, Peter Waterman, who was at Stock Aking Waterman, obviously.

23:50But at the time when they signed me, I didn't even know who they were. They just sounded like a firm of solicitors to me. Do you know what I mean? How did that happen then? Stock Aking Waterman. I was in a band, and the managers who were looking after us at the time knew Pete Waterman a little bit. And he was actually dating a girl from Newtonley Willows, which is where I'm from as well. He came to a showcase with like three or four bands, I seem to remember. and we the band I was in was one of those bands and I was the singer at this point I'd sort of quit the drumming thing and he just said well he I think he just felt there was something in my voice that he could work with and he wanted to sign me but he didn't want to sign the band and I didn't really want to do that but as the months went by uh you know we were kids and I just thought well he's in London he's making records you know they hadn't had a giant record yet but they'd had people who'd been on top of the pops and for me that was like the be all and end all the pop music it's like if you get on top of the pops you've made it you don't have to have a number one record you just you're on there and that's it and um but i didn't really know who they were as producers i wasn't because again we didn't have the internet you couldn't just google it yeah you couldn't who are these people and find out everything they've ever done you know what i mean and so anyway so i took a punt on it i guess really and they took a punt on me i signed to their little production company and and then the the amazing thing but the kind of crap thing was that they had this massive couple of records with used to be me around dead or alive say me number one by princess um mel and kim obviously and i was signed to their little production company but i wasn't going to get ahead of any of that lot because obviously people were throwing money at them yeah to make another record for their artists for a big label and in the end waterman thought i'm gonna have to sign this kid to somebody because i think we are we're becoming something that people are looking to for the next big thing kind of thing so super luckily i got signed to rca records which for me was incredible that was like you know yeah just amazing um and but what it also meant through this whole period was i was making tea and hanging out at the studios and just getting the sandwiches and doing you know just like a lot of the other kids who were there so on a one and i kind of got an apprenticeship i didn't ask for but it was amazing it was amazing it's like i don't know i don't know what you can compare it with really but i got to be around the making of hit records i got to see somebody literally turn on the drum machine in the morning in fact i probably did that sometimes set the desk up in the morning got the tea and biscuits in and they'd start a track and like two months later that track would be on top of the pops yeah with the artist that they wrote it for.

26:28Didn't Bruce Springsteen do that as well? Wasn't he just like hanging out in the studio? Yeah, maybe he was, but he wasn't hanging out in the borough. I can tell you that. You know what I mean? Where was this? Is that where you were? Yeah, it was in the borough. The building is still there. I don't think the studios are there at all anymore. I think they've all been ripped out, which is kind of sad in a lot of ways because they made, I don't know how many albums in that thing. You know, all the Kylie stuff, the early days and obviously Jason's. But countless records before that. I mean loads of records before that the whole every wall after about me being there for I don't know eight months a year I suddenly realized something maybe maybe a bit less than that that like not every studio in London is doing this yeah I kind of thought oh it's the London studio that's what people do you make hit records boom but no they don't they make them every now and again yeah you know a producer an artist comes in yeah so what it might go in the bargain bin it might not go anywhere and these guys were banging them out every two weeks it was just ludicrous so with with never going to give you up how how does it happen like am i right in saying it's your first single it was the first proper single yeah i hadn't really recorded anything i mean the the i got signed to rca and one of the weird things about that and it's i kind of love to tell this story because it's so ridiculous it's that the guy who signed me a guy called peter robinson he ran their a and r department the kind of department that signs people and then nurtures that talent and stuff so he said to waterman look i need to hear him sing so pete was going to organize a showcase and blah blah blah and in the end i ended up singing to my demos that i'd done in newton in my friend's stepdad's basement and i stripped the vocals off came back down to london and sang those songs so i ended up with four songs on the first album because the guy from rca really liked the songs and pete waterman had no intention of me ever getting a song on the album I'm not saying in a malicious way or anything.

28:20It was just like, well, we write the songs, love. That's what we do. We produce them, we write them. But then when you've got the head of RCA going, well, I like his songs. He's like, sure, let's have his songs. So that first album sold bucket loads, like bucket loads. And so I got four of my songs. And I'm going to just hold my hand up and say they probably weren't as good as theirs. None of them were singles. I was 19, 20 when I wrote those songs. I didn't know anything. you know um but what it meant was is that even though we'd had even though we were kind of building towards you know releasing a stockhake in waterman produced and written song it meant that i had four on there i knew that they were coming kind of thing but going back to that initial never going to give you up thing because i'd been there a lot and i'd made tea and i'd got the sandwiches and all the rest of it like the other kids in the building and was learning the ropes of how to make a record and stuff um they kind of knew me and they kind of knew what I liked and I lived at Pete Walkman's house I actually lived at his flat for I think six months and I come down the train and I go back to his place on a Monday night sometimes I'd work through the night because that was the session I was given and stuff um but I lived at his place and I got to know him a little bit I mean there's still an age gap and there's a there's a million years in terms of like where he was at and where I was at.

29:40But still, I think they wrote a song for me that they knew I could kind of get away with. You know what I mean? I could actually carry it off. But having done it and having got me to record it, they were a bit unsure about it. So the sentiment of the lyric, they really thought this is great for Rick because this is, you know, he's not particularly brash and full of himself kind of thing. I was really painfully shy at that point, I think. and so that sentiment of the song is pretty sweet it's pretty you know they thought it was kind of but i think the marriage of my voice and the way that their track sounded they were a bit unconvinced so they remixed it i don't know how many times they got every remixer that they that worked with them to redo it they redid a lot of the instrumentation they changed they just kept changing it and changing it and changing it so we recorded that about a year before it came out oh my god because i went on a ski holiday in december of 86 and i'd had a cassette for quite a long time and i was listening to that and a couple of my demos while i was on holiday because i played it to the friend i went on holiday with and uh i remember just thinking just put it out were you happy with the final version i thought it sounded great but i mean it's so difficult when you're in that thing of it's hard to to relate to just how big they were they were having like I say hit after hit and so I think they were probably terrified of not especially because they'd signed me and all right I was signed to RCA Records worldwide and everything and it was a priority for them if they got it right but it was still a big thing for them if they got it wrong and I think they just looked at me and thought he looks 12 years old but he doesn't sound like that and are people going to believe it?

31:26so one of the other things was we didn't make a video for it we didn't make a video until it went to number one and in those days it took like five or six weeks to get to number one unless you were Madonna or something but it did, it didn't just go to number one it was like number one in 25 countries something like that, yeah there's hits and then there's hits, right? yeah, it was a big tune it was the biggest tune in the country that year and everything and it was the number one in America which was the, for me was like that's a game changer completely how did life change then with that? well, I guess I was just really busy for one thing I travelled all the time literally all the time Do you have all the screaming girls after you, like, One Direction?

32:03You know what? I was never one of those guys. And I was always like, I remember, I'm trying to remember his name now, Nick. Who's the guy who was in Levi's advert? He took all his clothes off and threw him in the washing machine. And he made a record as well. Yeah, Nick Kamen, yeah. I remember the first TV I did in Italy. It was one of my first trips abroad. First trip abroad was Berlin, actually, and that was so amazing. Anyway, you go to Italy, and we go to this massive TV show. you know and i remember living in a box with her and various other people and did it and um nick came and walks out and literally every girl just kind of fainted and i had to go on after him all right sorry girls you know i bet you he's bald now though bald and overweight yeah i very much doubt that somehow but let's hope i'll google that as well yeah but it was just it was i mean don't get me wrong i don't think i've never thought i'm ugly I've never thought on this, that and the other, but I don't think that record made it because of the way I look.

33:03Or if it did, it was because I looked a bit, like I looked 12 with Red Air and Freckles. I mean, listen, I'm very, very happy with everything in life. I'm not, no, you know, but I just don't think, again, I think that was one of the things about a lot of the time I'd go and do Top of the Pops or I'd go and do what, I'm just think, yeah, everyone else is, they're like pop stars. You know, I remember seeing - Did you feel like imposter syndrome-y? Well, I just didn't feel like a pop star. I just didn't feel like one. And I remember going like to Spain and places like that and Italy as well actually where that kind of Latin temperament of like girls going a bit nuts and thinking, well, yeah, I guess I'm the opposite of what is around the corner for them, which is, you know, a dark and handsome Italian or Spanish or do you know what I mean?

33:49Italian stallion. Red hair and freckles is probably cool for them. But I just remember thinking like, yeah, this doesn't really fit, you know, because I'd sort of seen the Simon Le Bonze of this world hanging off the front of a yacht, you know what I mean? Looking great and being a pop star. And I just didn't feel that way. I think that's why now, you know, because you're connected to quite a young generation of fans now, especially with your Glaston replay and with Blossoms. Yeah, sure, yeah. And I think that's because of the way you are, your demeanour and the way you talk. And, you know, it's obviously the music as well, which connects.

34:23Sure. but you know i think people like you right and i think the fact that you um hopefully thank you um well the blossoms thing is a really interesting thing for me anyway because obviously they are they're of an age that is more my daughter's age in fact i think they're all younger than my daughter i think pretty much or about that is that why you did it was was your daughter a big factor in the fact no not really no no not at all actually no we we bumped into each other when the manchester arena reopened um and that was such an amazing night anyway i think when it kind of opened again and you know Noel Gallagher was headline they had loads of bands from Manchester play and it was just epic it was really great and you know there's people from from both football clubs and everything there that night and everything it just felt good you know what I mean it felt great for Manchester and anyway so we ended up in in Noel Gallagher's dressing room because he was lovely and just said look all pile in mine for a beer so I got chatting to some of the guys from Blossoms and I've been admiring Joe's drum kit because I'm a bit of a closet drummer still and i was looking at his kit and i was asking him about it because it's a particular it's a british company make them basic british drum company and i was just having a look anyway um and we got chatting and all the rest of it and then they invited me to jump on their podcast and one of the things themes in the podcast is to talk about music from when you were a kid obviously and what inspired you but also music from manchester so i named a few smith songs because i was besotted by the smiths and still am some great musicians from manchester yeah i mean there's always has been and i mean you know the oasis thing recently has been superb and amazing and great and i've been to a couple of those gigs and you know but there's been so many bands over the years and also bands that have done something different yeah actually kind of flown in the face of what everyone else is doing almost you know um and anyway so and i said in the podcast i said well i've always had this thing that in an alternate universe i want to go a pub one night or a place one night and just sing smith songs i just want to do it because i do it in the shower and i do it when i'm out on my bike and i do it when i'm building a shed or whatever i'm doing so why not do it you know as a thing yeah anyway um that must have landed with them because they got back in touch a couple of weeks later and said well we've been thinking about that you know because they all love the smiths and we said well we'll be the band let's just do it for a grin oh my god and so we didn't have great expectations of that our plan i think was a bit like let's just do it and if we play like in a pub in stockport then great we'll just do it to sort of like let it out you know um but obviously they're managed and and you know surrounded by great people and all the rest of it and my wife who's a great person manages me and they all got talking because they know each other a bit said we should this should be a real gig because they came to the rehearsal that we did for it just to try the songs out and um i think the generation thing didn't matter at all it didn't matter how old they were and how old i was it was just those songs just made us unified and just go this is amazing yeah and one way or another even if we play it for 20 people in a dog in stockport pub we have to do it or in a proper venue so we did a couple of proper venues and it was amazing but the first night we did it in manchester it was unbelievable it was literally unbelievable and you know a lot of my family were there and stuff and obviously the guys families and stuff and my brother who'd got me into the smiths more of my older brothers um he was there and and i just think for all of us it was just like i don't know really um so many memories of those amazing songs and stuff and i can understand and i think i understood at the time some people are going to fucking hate this and want to literally string me up that's for sure maybe blossoms as well but we just said let's just do it and we'll just do it it's a bit under the radar we'll do it and it's just something we want to do anyway it kind of went that well that um uh we got asked to do a secret set in glastonbury so that's when it kind of went a bit but that's that's the one i saw right and people weren't hating it no no those songs are just epic they're just gorgeous you know and they're they're unusual like i say and it's one of the things i loved about them was that they literally even when they went on top of the pops they kind of went on top of the pops in a certain way like Morrissey never had a mic he never he never made that facade of like yeah I'm miming he just went on there and just just I'm just gonna sing the song but I'm not using a mic to do it and pretend that I'm actually doing this for you know what I mean it was like just everything about it and like the hearing aid thing as well and everything and I just think musically they were just so incredible and amazing and obviously everyone knows you know how gifted johnny mar is and like you know he's a standout talent in in any world but i think in terms of like what they did musically no one's ever replicated that i don't think no one's ever it was a quirk that nobody ever really else kind of matched i don't think although you max are a bit biased over this myth we are a bit there's been there's been a few bands from liverpool over the years as well there's been a few echo and the bunny men are all right do you know i love um simply red yeah another another yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah he's pretty amazing i think uh he's a he's a he's written some bonkers great tunes and he's still singing amazing i did a thing recently at a radio i'm not going to mention who whatever and whatever but we did this thing and basically his pack wasn't working he was only on there to sing a couple of songs it was just we all just did a couple of tunes and he went out there and his pack was wasn't well and he just went yeah whatever and he just sang and I know he could hear bugger all he could hear kind of what was coming out of the PA maybe but it's a challenge you know what I mean it is that time it's to me and he just did it he just did it and I'm just like hats off man he just did it and he sounded great and everything I just went there you go that's I really want to go and see him for my 40th in November you should do in Amsterdam oh right why Amsterdam then I don't know I just think it'd be something fun to do the weekend we've seen him here okay it feels like a pretty good place to take a quick break and hear from our sponsors and remember if you're enjoying this top class crouch content don't forget to share with your friends and family what what uh who've you over the years is there any one you've been like starstruck with like when you know when you're playing and you know you obviously in the early days you were obviously huge massive you must have been to places where yeah i think to be honest a lot of the time that's happened later on in life as well a little bit yeah um i met elton a couple of times early on and he's been super gorgeous to so many people i think and and he you know obviously you know we all know about his his ego in different decades and the way he's been and what have you but thank god he has you know because that's what it needs you know showbiz needs that even a little bit um but he's a pretty special and and even though he's i've met him a bunch of times i guess and i'm really good friends with the guys his musical director guitar player he's married to one of my wife's best friends and you know so for 30 odd years i've been popping up to gigs to see him and obviously see elton but i mean to say hi to davy and stuff and i think elton if you think about where he's been and what he's done um he's managed somehow to keep a real kind of love for music and gets super super excited about other people's music he's so educated on all the newbies coming up isn't he is yeah he's really switched on with yeah yeah he is he's incredible knowledge of football as well yeah yeah yeah absolutely well he should do he owned a club at one point yeah yeah but so obviously that one is always a you know and even though i have met him a few times i still kind of i still kind of feel a little bit like it's and he probably hates that when people do that but i'm sorry elton but it's just like because every now and again you just you just look at him and you go oh shit it's that elton you do and i've done i've done that name drop name drop i've met paul mccartney a couple of times and again he's one of those people who like if you talk to him i've only spoken to him a tiny bit and what have you and sort of with other people as well but you kind of like it is difficult i don't care what anybody says he's a beetle you know it's like it's difficult you know you you i saw him in um uh texas actually a couple of years back we were we were touring there and he was touring and i managed drove 10 hours by the way to do it but anyway um went to see him wow and my wife and i and we both laughed a lot because he was super funny um we both cried quite a bit as well when he introduced certain songs in a certain way and talked about obviously you know the other members who aren't there and stuff um and just because of the beauty of the goddamn their music it was just like this is ridiculous you know and i was kind of just looking at the audience quite a bit as well and it was a huge audience but i'm just kind of looking at them going like this is i kind of said it before i guess but this is one of the people who built what we've all been kind of standing on for all these years yeah these are the people who put the stones in place early on and it's hard but it is hard sometimes to recognize that like because they're still alive and very often when you talk about people in that way they're kind of long gone yeah um and he's still out there and you know still rocking still sounding great and you know so so yeah someone i think it's just that kind of living legend thing is a bit difficult and yeah i've met a few people i think i think sometimes it's a bit weird the ones you think you're going to be fine with sometimes you're not um but uh yeah they're kind of what why do you think i know you had a break quite a large break for a bit and then what i retired really i wasn't coming back it was like i'm done yeah yeah yeah and then so why why do you think of why did you come back first and foremost and then and why do you think it's kind of really resonated with so many people now well it's taken a long time to resonate i can tell you that because i i actually i used to get offers to go and sing my old songs um this is like in my 30s and stuff you know because i packed in when i was about 27 oh my god yeah and um i just didn't want to do it anymore I was just done with it and it was done with me to be fair you know I'd had my moment and um and I used to just politely say no thank you it's like that door ain't opening again and then we got this um call or an email or what have you and uh it was to go to Japan and do it and my wife kind of heard this and our daughter did we haven't been there Rick that's kind of what it was that's Kind of what it was.

44:51And my daughter was like kind of, you know, she studied art and, you know, she went on to study art properly and everything, all the rest of it. Got a master's, all the rest of it. And she was really fascinated by Japan anyway because of just the beauty of it and the difference of it, I guess. My wife really wanted to go. I'd been a few times. So they literally just kind of press ganged me into doing it. And I went and I did. there was a couple of other artists playing it wasn't just me but I probably did I don't know how long I played for an hour or whatever it was and literally from the first song I just went you silly bugger why haven't you done this before and I think because it was a weird experience actually I'm going to fill in the whole all of it for you if that's alright if I can take a minute to do that so my wife manages me but she has a real job she has produced movies and she works in film and all the rest of it and TV and different things not really TV so much but she's done anyway so she got nominated um for a short film oscar wow she didn't win it but um luckily but anyway but we went to the oscars so as a family we went to the oscars our daughter came and everything and um and sean ellis who's the director's amazing director actually and he um he had obviously his family came so we all kind of went and we all went down the red carpet and did the whole thing and the whole bit and everything and it just so happened the timing of it was that this was the weekend before I was going to Japan.

46:20So we flew to LA. I had probably, my wife and daughter had been there a few days, but I had something to do. I can't remember what it was. I can't believe what I had to do, but anyway, you know, so I arrived the day before the Oscars. We went to the Oscars. We went to all the parties afterwards and I got, went to lunch, brunch lunch the day after somewhere lovely. I can't remember in LA with a bunch of friends and then got on a plane to tokyo wow so it was so mad this like week long period of like we've just been to the freaking oscars yeah um with the possibility of my wife taking one home you know i mean and sean obviously as well they didn't unfortunately but anyway um and then i went and sang those old songs that i hadn't sung for years at that point and it was just i was jet lagged to buggery i was just all over the place and i just think something in me just clicked and just went you can actually do this without it being everything it doesn't have to be every moment of your life it doesn't have to be like where are we going next you can just cherry pick things and pick little things you want to do and so gradually over the years i've been doing that since then and then this last probably 10 years or so it's kind of just ramped up and up and up um partly because um i made new music i guess and i kind of did that because i wanted to obviously um but obviously i'd have kind of like a snifter of it because i i opened up for p2k not not this time the last time like 10 years ago whatever it was 12 years ago whatever so i did all these manchesters that wasn't 12 years ago yeah i think it was yeah something like that i did all these manchesters and i did all the londons and a friend of mine who's a producer and writer he said you're gonna have to do a new song you know i'm like what are you talking about no one knows i'm doing it anyway why does anybody care if you know he said no no no no you're going to be in front of possibly 10 15 000 people a night for months on end why would you not sing a new song i went yeah maybe you're right so anyway we wrote a song we did it and i played it every night and we got it on radio two which is obviously our main port of call these days and we were kind of like there's something in me that just sort of thought that was really fun to just sing a new song rather than and i love singing the old ones who did we have on who was going on tour and i was like oh they were we're not playing i'm not playing any of my old stuff and i was like oh no right okay that must be a real dilemma yeah as an artist like when everyone you kind of not known for that song yeah to be honest i don't i don't see it as a dilemma because i'm not getting out of the building if i don't play the old ones yeah that's just it yeah and that's and it's it doesn't say it on the ticket but in my head it is printed in invisible ink that i'm playing because i am and that's it's the only reason they let me in the building so why would i not do it i understand if artists don't want to and they go we we didn't go in the end actually but we almost saw david bowie once on a tour where he basically announced he said i'm not singing any of the old songs and i said well i still want to see him you know and we couldn't go in the end whatever but i just thought that's going to be weird actually but anyway he announced it and he explained it and i think that's fine if your fans know they're not getting them that's fine but if any of my fans you know are ever going to come to my gigs again believe me i'll be singing the old ones well you've got a big tour coming up we have we have and i will always it's i just think it's part of the um it's part of the deal for me it's like that's what it is you can't you can't make believe and just sort of say that's not why they came because i and there are people in the audience who want me to sing some of the new ones and i see it absolutely i see them yeah it reached number two right it did yeah so yeah yeah that's incredibly successful yeah yeah i mean it's i've been super lucky i've been i'm kind of re-signed with the label who had all my old songs and have my old back catalog and everything it's obviously different people but yeah they've really gone for it and they've treated me not not in the world of like you know some of the artists i mentioned before like a harry styles or a taylor swift that that's that's eons of light years away it's a different universe but in terms of them saying okay how are we going to do something with this guy they've really gone for it and i've got to be honest and all the people that we work with would echo this definitely it's down to my wife that record would have stayed in the garage without her to be honest that's simple as that it just would i know it would and um you know she's she's amazing actually and an all power to i'll say this as well all power to any woman who gets shit done in the music industry because it was really tough i think back back in the day yeah and i still think there's a bit of i would say there's a tiny bit of that still hanging in there um we've definitely got more people working even like you know obviously you know crew and different jobs and management and all kinds of things these days but i still think it's it's just harder for a woman to go in there and just say look this is the way we're going to do it yeah it's it's still a bit of a i don't know maybe i'm saying too much there but i still feel it's a bit you know i'm moving on that i've got a i've got a woman who gets shit done as well right but it's great isn't it it's like it's it is great and i kind of think you know we live in a very different world than than what i grew up in that's for sure you know and i kind of feel that it's um i don't know i think i think a manager's job anyway of of a music artist or or maybe you know whatever thing it is it's a tough it's a tough thing to do because you're sort of balancing their ego their dreams their fears their everything their insecurities but you're also balancing that with trying to make everybody focus on it.

51:49Yeah. Which is a weird thing. Do you know what I mean? It's like, I always think a lot of the greatest painters and artists of that kind of ilk are dead. Yeah. And they died before they became the greats that they are. And maybe because they didn't have all the nonsense surrounding them while they were painting and sculpting. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. I sometimes think about that, that it's kind of like, it's so in the spotlight, I think, today, being an artist of any description with terms of music and stuff that it's like i don't know really i'm not sure i'd be able to deal with it in terms of like if i was starting out now you know so well uh i'm a huge food fighters fan oh and a glastonbury fan right so how does that come about and and i've got to ask you about glastonbury glastonbury's been very good to you yeah i mean it was just bonkers um the the food fighters thing um i was doing a festival in japan and we were way down the list we were on in the afternoon and it was in it was in Osaka and it was in Tokyo and then we were staying in Tokyo to do some more gigs after but smaller ones obviously because this festival was massive so I saw he was headlining Foo Fighters and and I'm a closet drummer like I say and like you know they've had some of they've had two of the best drummers in the world in that band you know what I mean and um and um so I said I really want to see Foo Fighters see if we can get by the side of the stage because we won't be able to get to do that ever again and the first night we couldn't do it just because of timing and stuff second night i said i don't care what happens we're going to the side of the stage so my wife and i we did our gig we did our set and it was great it was really good fun i mean there was like it was so eclectic this festival it was ridiculous there was like a k-pop band on like i think before us or what have you and i'm like what i don't even know what that is but whatever it's all good and then and we did our thing and then anyway later on the evening we got to the side of the stage and their crew were pretty amazing they just made room for everybody and said look just don't you know be cool don't get in the way but you can sit wherever you want other than that kind of thing put us all behind a little barrier so pretty amazing and that's a thing to witness in itself is Foo Fighters that close because it's like it's kind of like a wild beast has just been let out of a cage almost you know what I mean um anyway we stood at the side of the stage and I'd had a few beers by this point I was jet lagged um and Chris Shifflett one of the guitar players comes walking over so he's walking over and we all move out the way for him because he's going to say hello to this guy and so we're thinking cool they must be mates whatever this is in the middle of the gig by the way so he walks back so then like 10 minutes later Dave Grohl walks over so we all moved out the way there's about 20 of us and we all just moved out the way because I think he's going to say hello to this guy whoever this dude is and Dave Grohl kept following me so I'm like I'm trying to get out the way going like this guy behind me must be moving and Dave's trying to get to him you know what I mean so I'm moving and moving and sure enough he wasn't he was coming to me so he came over and he gave me a hug and he said he just looked me right in the eye and he said he said hey I'm Dave and I said I know I'm Rick and he said I know and then he just walked back on stage unreal I'm like what the fuck was that that's the weirdest they're in the middle of like one of their big songs right and he's just taking a walk you know so anyway 10 minutes more goes by i had another couple of beers by now and um one of the crew came over he put a mic in my hand he pulls the barrier and he says dave would like you out front i'm like okay we're in we're in a baseball stadium in tokyo there's like 70 000 people here they don't want to see me walk on the stage they came to see foo fighters they don't this isn't but i was a bit pissed you know so so i walked out there didn't you drop dead i would have died no i was just i don't know where i was to be honest i was somewhere else i think so i walked out there and i got a hug from dave again kind of thing and he whispers in me and he says so we're gonna play your song and at this point i just thought he was gonna go you'll never guess who's here folks this dude yeah yeah i thought that was gonna be it like rick astley's here you know i mean do you remember him or whatever do you know his tune whatever he says we're gonna play your song but it's gonna sound a bit like teen spirit and I'm like okay so at this point and then they just cracked off into it and I just thought I don't really know what to do so I went to the front of the stage and I screamed at 70 ,000 people come on you motherfuckers and I wasn't I genuinely wasn't trying to be rock and roll I was just in the moment of like I don't know what to do folks so let's do that so then we sang the tune and it sounded fantastic, it sounded awesome but I didn't know what was you know I didn't know what was coming I had no idea but it turns out they'd learnt they'd learnt to play that mashup for something else and somebody had seen my list my name on the list of people and evidently I found all this out afterwards obviously they'd seen my name and said well if we see that guy we're definitely getting him up because we already know we can thrash through you know so our teen spirit but in that way you know and anyway it was amazing so we literally hung out on the stage after that we just you know some of my crew and some of the band and obviously my wife they seem like good guys as well they just sat us down on these boxes like ice boxes full of beers and drinks and everything and just kind of not the band the band were playing to the audience but the crew just said to look just sit there you'll be fine we were literally right on the stage and we went for drinks after with them and we just hung out they were going somewhere I can't remember to do a gig on a night flight so they weren't going anywhere till like 3 in the morning so we didn't and we just hung out with them and we're just chatting about all kinds of nonsense and everything and talking about, you know, and we talked about drumming a bit and stuff and, you know, I said I was a closet drummer and all that and it was just a great night.

57:29And then, I don't know, I can't remember, sometime after I got a text from Dave saying, do you want to come to the O2 because we're about to release a new record and we're going to come and do, for them, like a, not a warm-up gig, but like a just pop into London and do the O2 gig, you know. and I said yeah I'm in so I went down and sorry I'm harbouring on this you can edit this anyway so what was amazing was oh I'm loving it so at this point this point they have a little jam room before they go on so they can warm up and whatever so I got invited to that so they could jam through the tune with me again and everything but obviously that didn't happen in Tokyo that was just blind straight in so we're in there and they're just fucking around just playing whatever they want just jamming and having a bit of fun and they played that tune so we could play it again and then I took a photograph of the set list because I thought I need to know when they want me to come to the stage because it's a big place to go to because I was out front watching and sure enough they start off no no they started off played the first song on the set list and then completely ignored the set list absolutely ignored it because obviously they were just in the mood and Dave was in the mood and for them it was a not a warm up gig but a smaller gig for them you know so they're just thrashing into whatever they want to play so I thought I'll sod this so I grabbed my beer and I went down to the side of the stage just in case you know and And anyway, so I got up and sung it there.

58:46And I've done it a couple of other times with them. I did it in the States. Glastonbury? Well, yeah, I went to, I didn't sing it at Glastonbury with them. Oh, okay. I saw them play, they played the day before us actually, and theirs was a secret gig. And that was, I mean, it was really interesting to see that because obviously Taylor Hawkins wasn't there, which was just, I don't know really, man. That was, I mean, anybody who's been a Foo Fighters fan obviously and followed them, it's like that's just a i don't know just huge massive and um so it was really it was beautiful and it was amazing just to see them back on a stage and everything i'm sure they've done gigs before that before i haven't seen them and it was just but it was also it was it was uh an unseen and felt dynamic because he was such um a unique drummer as well and like and i think if you're going to drum in a band that Dave Grohl started you better have your shit together do you know what I mean and boy did he have his shit together you know what I mean and so it was a bit of an unusual thing to see him not there but it was just I don't know it was great really really amazing but you you do your glass of reggae in in 2023 right is it true that you you went out early because you were on at midday we were on midday first one and it was and it was barely anyone there nobody absolutely nobody and went back yeah shit in it yeah what were you thinking of Well, my wife and I were like kind of thinking, we did laugh about it, but it was like nervous laughing, you know?

1:00:11And it was like, so it's going to be, it'll be live on the BBC, this. It'll be like, this will be the biggest failure you can possibly have. Were we there then? That makes sense. Right, so I went down to the dressing room and our daughter was with us, a lot of family and friends and everything, but our daughter was actually in my little room. We were there because I saw you? Because we were like, there's Rick Astley. We were there all weekend. We were there Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We did the whole thing and obviously we stayed for Elton's thing as well, which is gorgeous. And so, yeah, so we went through.

1:00:42I was racking my brains because I'm like, I've been in the same room, as you know. Right, okay. In the same tent. You should have come and said hello. I know. But yeah, so I went to the dressing room. Our daughter was there and she kind of calmed me down a bit really and just because she goes, she used to go every year kind of thing. And she just said, look, they'll come. And I'm like, no, they're not, they're not, you can't do that. It's like, there's nobody and that's going to take a lot of filling that field it's going to take tens of thousands of people even if we don't fill it even if we are fill it and she said don't worry they'll come and i was like i felt like i was in a film or something do you know what i mean where like the lead actor's going don't worry they'll come yeah it was just weird and anyway put my suit on went back up to the stage and then i had another freaky thing where my in-ear pack wouldn't work and it was just where i was standing i must have just been in this dead zone because i could see everyone else could hear and it was i was really crapping myself at this point uh we always have a jaeger before we we go on we have our own jaeger machine and it's at the right temperature and we always have one so i just thought right i had two i had a couple of them and uh and i just thought well here goes nothing you know but by the time i'd sort of had the jaegers and was peering around the it's not a curtain obviously but it's just a massive screen i'm like where the hell did they come because it's like there's like a football crowd of people you know tens of thousands of people i'm just like that's a trick how does that even how do they do that you know and um did that make you feel better though oh my god yeah yeah yeah i was just like well at least you know at least there'll be somebody to see it if we mess it up at least you know messing it up and bring nobody there is like the worst thing you can imagine but um anyway it was just epic and i think my daughter also said to me kind of she said just be in it just do just do it like you just let you do anything like you've gone to rehearsal you do it just you know just do what you you know and um she's kind of seen me kind of like messing around and jamming with friends and whatever knows that i just like playing kind of thing she gets the sort of connection i have with it and so that's kind of what i did i just thought let's just go for it and and also i think as well you the chances are of me getting to do blast blastonbury again are probably minimal uh i'm not going to say never because you should never say never but the chances of me getting to do that again are probably a bit on the zero level i know but it's like so i just thought let's just go for it so and last minute as well and this is one of the things i loved it's one of my favorite moments in the whole memory of it actually is um i thought it's it was so hot that year it was unbelievable and everyone was like sweating buckets and like you know and obviously i thought my quiff's just gonna die in this weather darling i was gonna recognize me so um so I asked Tori who's our production man I said Tori can I have a hairdryer on stage and he's like I don't think we can do that really because like all the power's clean you can't you can't start bringing things on at the last minute that haven't been tested that aren't going to mess something up yeah and I said well blow the whole operation yeah and he just looked at me and he's amazing anyway he just looked at me and he went so he got on his radio and I just thought this is the weirdest thing in the world if someone's if someone's just walking past because you've been those dressing rooms like the day before like Foo Fighters are there you know name drop paul mccartney was there it's just everybody everybody's just hanging around in all those dressing rooms and if somebody's listening to a guy going um can we have a hairdryer on stage for rick astley please it's like that's that's the sort of most ridiculous thing in the world but anyway they got me one and um when adam our guitar player was doing one of his solos i drive my hair on national tv and there's just a glimpse of it it's just a glimpse of me doing the quiff on the main stage you know the the can you not like i know but in that weather forget it you know it's like and then like Fem Hold hairspray or something like that that's what people want I want the secrets people want that from an 80s pop star no but it was just it was like I don't know it was so so ridiculous that it suited how amazing the whole thing of getting to do the glass and everything was it was like so ridiculous that like you know I actually did my quiff mid set that is class so you've got a reflection tour yeah we need to come to this yeah so I am having a year off I'm not really doing gigs this year and we went on we've been on holiday a few times thank heavens this year it's been amazing and we're with some friends in Capri have you ever been?

1:04:58yes never been before and they go every year and they just you know they've always talked about it so we joined them this year and talking about boozing a lot on this show but anyway we had a fantastic lunch somewhere just you know down by the beach on the rocks and it was just one of those days where the rose was flowing and there's like 20 pairs of sunglasses on the table because we were under this thing, you know. So obviously I tried everyone on, do you know what I mean? As you do, when you've had a couple of glasses of rosé. And then this one pair, my wife just burst out laughing when she saw me in them and a friend of ours, Richard, took this photograph of me.

1:05:31And when we saw it later in the WhatsApp group, a couple of days later, in fact, actually when we're going through the photos, my wife and I, we just looked and said, what are you thinking about? Because I was just looking out to see, I was a bit tipsy, you know. and I was just I was just thinking how the fuck did I get here how did I get here I'm going to be 60 next year I'm doing you know some pretty big gigs next year my biggest gig ever probably will be the O2 you know it's like biggest gigs I've done um uh I just don't know I'm in Capri with some gorgeous lovely friends we're living it up we're living the dream how did this happen and that's kind of what I'm thinking I'm and I remembered the moment of thinking it through a haze of rose and just thinking like you know this is ridiculously amazing and you have to own it and you've got to remember it and uh so i was doing a bit of reflecting and i have been reflecting and then when we said that um sun bright spark said well why don't we put different things in the sunglass lenses so in the left hand lens i don't know it's used in every poster and every post and every social whatever but in the left hand is me singing never going to give you up in the video and on the right hand is me doing Glastonbury singing never going to give you up and it's kind of like a sort of you can only see if you look for it you know what I mean but we all thought it was quite funny that it's like after all these years I'm still singing that goddamn song but it still puts me in the best places in that you could possibly dream of after all these years so I know don't get me wrong it's not all false modesty and it's not all this I'm all right I can carry a tune and I can you know get on a stage and do it and all the rest of it but i also know there's so many casualties in this business it's unbelievable it's just unbelievable and it's not always their fault it's just something just that moment of like yes or no or wrong path right path yeah and you know i was i was sat on a beach in capri going right path baby right path honestly that i feel like that's the best place to to leave this there okay only because I'm just I'm just picturing you on that beach having the best moment and you know how much you've achieved and where you are in the place and it's good to see people in good places right thank you we're pleased to see you in a good place as well I've got to hear it's an absolute pleasure to have you on thank you it's great to hear obviously we've loved hearing you sing over the years but it's great to hear you talk as well thank you thank you so much Rick Astley boom