Rick Astley has opened up about the guilt he felt when he decided to step back from the limelight at the peak of his career.
The ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ singer, who soared to fame in the 1980s, chose to take a break from the music scene in 1993 to spend more time with his family, including his partner Lene Bausager and their one-year-old daughter Emilie. Now, speaking candidly on BBC Radio 5 Live with Rachel Burden and Rick Edwards, Astley confessed: “You just end up thinking, I’ve got a daughter at home, I can have a different life, I’m not really loving this.”
He added: “And I felt guilty because I was an ’80s pop star, I should be loving it but I kind of felt it’s just time to walk away.” Despite his hiatus, Rick made a triumphant return in 2001 with his album ‘Keep It Turned On’, followed by the release of ‘Greatest Hits’ in 2002, which catapulted him back into the public eye.
Reflecting on his comeback, the ‘Cry For Help’ singer revealed that making music is “a part of [his] DNA”, clarifying that it was the industry, not music itself, that he had fallen out of love with. He said: “I like doing it and I’m still the same with that. I don’t think that’s ever left me. I just fell out love with the music business, not music.”
Astley also touched upon his challenging relationship with his parents, suggesting it played a role in his initial pursuit of fame. He expressed: “I think it did form me as a person, definitely, and formed a lot of my choices of why I went into music and why I wanted to be on a stage and why I wanted people’s attention because I don’t think I got enough attention from my parents.”
Rick, who grew up in Lancashire, rose to fame in the 80s and became a worldwide sensation with Never Gonna Give You Up in 1987. Around the same time he met his wife Lene, when he was just 21 years old, while she was working as a promoter with his record label, RCA.
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald about their relationship, he said: “I fell in love with her the day I met her. I did get to see her briefly again a few weeks later in London, then a year after that over a cup of tea while on tour in Denmark. We started writing to each other and I’d rack up some big phone bills calling her from all over the world.”
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