Rick Astley Discovers the Rickroll

Pickens writes: "Over the last year or so, Rick Astley has watched with puzzled amazement as "Never Gonna Give You Up" has been mocked, celebrated, remixed and reprised, its original music video viewed millions of times on YouTube, all by a generation that could barely swallow its Gerber carrots when the song first topped the pop charts. "If this had happened around some kind of rock song, with a lyric that really meant something — a Bruce Springsteen, "God bless America" ... or an anti-something kind of song, I could kind of understand that," Astley said. "But for something as, and I don't mean to belittle it, because I still think it's a great pop song, but it's a pop song; do you know what I mean? It doesn't have any kind of weight behind it, as such. But maybe that's the irony of it." Astley, who will be touring the U.K. in May with a group of other '80's acts, including Bananarama, and Nick Heyward, Heaven 17, Paul Young and ABC, sums up his thoughts on his unexpected virtual fame with characteristic good humor: "Listen, I just think it's bizarre and funny. My main consideration is that my daughter doesn't get embarrassed about it.""