Rick Astley says Greta Thungberg’s critics need to be reminded that she’s still a young woman while defending her against ‘cruel’ trolling.
The 55-year-old singer was flattered recently when he saw viral footage of climate change activist Greta, 18, doing the famous Rickroll meme at one of her conventions.
During her speech at the Climate Live concert in Stockholm earlier this month, Greta began with an important message about the environment before sneaking in the lyrics of Rick’s iconic hit Never Gonna Give You Up and dancing on-stage with a friend.
The Rickroll meme has become an internet legend and usually consists of baiting an audience into clicking a link only for the music video of Rick’s hit song to pop up.
Sharing his thoughts on Greta’s homage to his music, Rick told Metro.co.uk: ‘I think it’s funny.
‘She gets a lot of media attention that sometimes isn’t healthy for her. When she first broke onto the scene and made some of the statements she made, I think a lot of people because she was really young were behind her but people have been pretty cruel to her plenty of times.
‘Whether you agree, don’t agree – there is really no not agreeing about climate change, it’s a fact, it’s happening, we all need to dig in and do something – but whether you agree with the way she goes about it, just to push that aside a second, she’s a young girl and came into the spotlight… Now and again when I see her laughing, it’s important to remember she’s a woman… but she’s still a girl.’
Rick continued: ‘I’ve got a daughter who’s 29 and I’ve lived through things where the internet can be a really cruel and horrible place sometimes so it just made me giggle seeing her laughing so much.
‘I just thought that was funny and forgetting the political side for a bit, I thought it was nice to see her having a bit of a laugh and she did it with my song so that’s great.’
Rick is enjoying a ‘pretty cool’ milestone in his career after becoming a member of the Marvel universe, with his 1987 song, Never Gonna Give You Up, featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy video game.
He’s also set to embark on a new UK & Nordics Tour which will see him perform to the masses once again.
Comparing how the tour life differs now to the 80s and 90s, Rick admitted: ‘I kind of like it a bit more these days to be honest because I’m a lot more chilled and I’m not trying to repeat any of that success I had as a kid because that would be impossible anyway.
‘I’m a different person, I’m a dad of 29 years, I’ve been alive now longer than that and I’m just a different person. But when I think back to those early days, the world was very different and I was very green in the sense that when I first went on tour with those songs, I was just 22 I think and if you just try and digest that for a moment, to be going all around Europe, to America and Australia, it’s a bit mad to be doing all of that anyway under any circumstances.
‘But doing it as a famous person, singing in front of sometimes 10,000 people a night, that’s just mad.’
He continued: ‘It’s a bit much to get a hold of yourself – you think you have a hold of it. I quit when I was 27/28 because I’d just had enough of it and I’m sure everyone had enough of me… but a few years after that I thought, how the hell did I do that? How the hell did I end up not going down some dark road or just completely losing it? It’s quite a lot to just put someone in their early 20s in that situation.’
Rick added that he now sees touring as a ‘giant holiday’ and finds more comfort in it these days as he’s ‘not bothered what people think’.
‘That comes with age. You have to find a place of being comfortable in yourself if you’re going to continue doing that,’ he said.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is available to purchase now on console and PC. Watch the video of Rick Astley Rickrolling gamers here.
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