Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe's Parenting Hell - S11 EP10: Rick Astley

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Joining us this episode to discuss the highs and lows of parenting (and life) is the brilliant singer-songwriter, radio DJ and presenter - Rick Astley. You can find tickets and info on Rick's upcoming 'The Reflection' 2026 tour at https://rickastley.co.uk Rick's fantastic book 'Never: The Autobiography' is available now. Parenting Hell is a Spotify Podcast, available everywhere every Tuesday and Friday. Please subscribe and leave a rating and review you filthy street dogs... xx If you want to get in touch with the show with any correspondence, kids intro audio clips, small business shout outs, and more.... here's how: EMAIL: [e-mail] Follow us on instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@parentinghell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ A 'Keep It Light Media' Production  Sales, advertising, and general enquiries: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to Parents in Hell, the show in which Josh and I discuss what it's really like to be a parent, which I would say can be a little tricky. So, to make ourselves, and hopefully you, feel better about the trials and tribulations of modern-day parenting, each week you'll be chatting to a famous parent

about how they're coping. Or hopefully how they're not coping. And we'll also be hearing from you the listener with your tips, advice and, of course, Tales of Parenting Woe. Because let's be honest, there are plenty of times where none of us know what we're doing. Hello, you're listening to Parenting Hell with... And they're trying to say, what this is? No, let's it.

Oh, God. And they say, it doesn't really come. Bye. No, you like it. What was going on there? Thanks so much for the podcast, started listening a long time ago during lockdowns when searching for a parenting podcast after late night panicking about soon becoming a father. This is Bodie, almost for asking his brother Otis one and a half if he can do the intro.

Both their mouths are currently always full of pizza. Wanted to point out a strange affinity to Josh. Oh, I grew up in Devon before moving to East London and later having a kid there. Between the two births, though, were you located to Berlin. Oh, I'd love that. But find Josh's experience politically related. Well, yeah, maybe I should do, fuck it now. And I might recommend Berlin if you're moving out of London, Josh.

Still cultured bit kid-friendly. I do love Berlin. Thanks for everything. Keep it up. Tom and Beebe, Bodie and Otis. Berlin's a little bit too cool for school for me. I prefer Munich. Do you?

I loved October Fest when I went. What, in Berlin, was it good? Was that when you were drinking? In Munich, yeah. Munich, yeah, I love Munich. Munich feels more Germany, where Berlin feels a bit more like just generic European. Whereas I think like in Australia, they're the same about Melbourne. Melbourne feels quite European, so Aussies love it, but I find I prefer the more Aussie places.

Do you know what I mean? You're a Brisbane, man. Yeah, I like Brisbane, like the Gold Coast, Brisbane. Like Sydney. I love Sydney. Perth. Perth. Perth, nice.

I like Perth. He feels like you're in Australia, where Melbourne, it's like a bit like, I can, They're just a lot of people telling you how good their coffee is. Yeah, it's quite, yeah. We get it. You're good at coffee. We get it. I'm not denying it.

I've said this before. They're not making the bean, are they? They're just doing milk. Exactly. Just doing milk and the temperature, mate. We've got a great interview with Rick Assey, Josh. Oh, yes, please. I loved it.

I didn't know what to expect because Rick Assey is not really my sort of era. No. You never know with these kind of guys that was super famous very young years ago, if they're like a bit nuts, but actually he was very level-headed and grounded. And I'd say I fell in love with Rick Astley. Yeah, totally. I really, really liked him.

I'll be honest, completely ambivalent before. Now, I'm fully team. No, I think so Rick Astley. No, I think that's fast. If I said, would you think Rick Castley, I go, nothing. Do you know what? What's her legend?

If I did an interview, and obviously, you know, you often do an interview, someone go, I'm a big fan, because they have to bust you up at the start. Yeah, yeah. But if someone said, I heard you do a,

an interview and the interviewer actually in the intro said before they spoke to you they're ambivalent but then they loved you afterwards i'd go that is the best it could have gone you've shows you've still got it exactly you can still convert people exactly that the game is it wasn't like i was aware i just wasn't really i know you were gonna give you up 86 one you were one year old i was one year old come on exactly connect with that um josh let's do some correspondence before we get the assley later on um um It's quite a long one here about wanker parents. Do you want it?

Oh, yes, please. Yes, yes, yes. Here we go. I'm taking my shoes off for this. Fair enough, I might put my pants on for this. Hi, Rob and Josh. Love it in audio. That's why you can do little jokes like that, Josh, got you?

It is a bit weird that you always take your trousers and pants off for the kids intro. That's why we don't film it much. Yeah, exactly. Hi, Rob and Josh. As soon as I heard you talk about parenting wankers, I immediately pictured this mother. Me and my wife take it in turns to take out eldest daughter to go swimming on a Friday night. It's smaller than your typical leisure swimming pool where you watch the classes

through the windows in the cafe. So this is the account of a mother we got to know from sitting watching our kids whilst in the cafe watching the kids. We have dubbed her Proseco mum, as when we first noticed her behaviour, she proclaimed to some other mums, it's Friday, it's Proseco time. Oh no. Oh no.

And every lesson, she has a glass of Prosecco from the cafe. At a swimming pool. Bleak. it's outside in the cafe so it's not so hot yeah yeah yeah i mean it's all clammy and stuff you have to take your jump off and put on your luck immediately with a little blue plastic shoe covers anyway um she has a glass of prosceco from the cafe and then openly and lownly moans about her two kids but not just the odd moan it's a full on account that week of how they have

been bad or naughty or ruined her life oh god oh god oh god one time she's i hope luckily the kids can't hear that, I suppose. One time she started banging, oh, here we go, one time she started banging on the glass and shouting at one of her children for not doing it right and using the phrase, stop interrupting money time. Mommy time. Oh my God. The child was learning and doing her best. Nothing you would describe as bad behavior. My wife came with me one time with our newborn baby. Praseco mum had made a beanline to the new baby and was being all cutesy with a baby and in the same tone of voice said just wait till you ruin your mum and dad's

life like my two kids ruined mine this woman is having a break now this is horrible if it wasn't bad enough the worst is when our daughter who has just finished a class noticed how much of a wanker she was I was rushing my daughter's hair and Proseca mum was doing the same for her to in the communal shower

she's full on shouting at her kids the moment they are out of the pool and never lowers her tone below shouting level her kids hadn't really been naughty in the class but she was going on directly to them about how much they're ruining her life. Oh my God. Don't eat to the kids. When me and my daughter got to the change room, my five-old

asked, why was that mummy so mean? Oh, my God. I have a short fuse sometimes, but this mother is on another level. We don't want to judge, well, you should. We don't want to judge other parents as you don't know what they have going on. It doesn't matter what you've got going on. Do you not take it out on your children. But Jesus, it's at the point where we feel need to raise the issue with a teacher

that these kids now notice. I, do you know what? I think that veers over from parent-wankers to actually that is just bad. bad parenting that I would pull up whoever's in charge. I'd say, you need to have a word of her. She's a... I can't bear seeing kids being badly treated like that. It does my ending.

But yeah, I think call that out to the teacher, definitely, and say, look. That's a welfare issue. Right, should bring on Rick Astley? Yeah, here we go. Enjoy it. He's a legend. Hello, Rick Astley. Hello, sweaty Rick Astley. Sweaty Rick Astley.

Why are you so sweet, Rick? I'm actually in Copenhagen right now, And it's one of those days where it's gorgeous, it's lovely. I love Coppnognege, my wife is Danish, our daughter, Lipsia. But there's just days in summer in Copenhagen where you walk out the door, and it's so humid, it's grey and humid. So I'm sweaty, Rick. Yeah, it was like that in London yesterday, where it was very sweaty and humid.

But you've gone for a denim shirt, though, Rick. It feels like an air-right. I just put this on because the other one's soaked through, darling. You've got a good 45 minutes for that to soak through there as well. Don't you worry. I've just told you, I can just, you don't fall. Your wife's Danish and your daughter lives in Copenhagen. She does indeed, yeah.

Was she brought up in the UK or brought up in Denmark? She was brought up in the UK till she was around 20, 1920. And she wanted to study art and she was looking at schools in London and what have you. And then she came to Denmark and did a project over here. And then she just fell in love. She'd been coming here all the life, obviously. You know, I've got family and friends and everything. But I think being here as a young adult, it's a great city Copenhagen.

I'm sure you guys have been. Rob is a huge Denmark fan. Oh, huge. Yeah, loads of times. We love it. Yeah, it's so good. I mean, as you know, Rob, the food here is gone bonkers over the last 20 years, you know. But just the quality of life, there's a lot to love about Denmark.

There really is. I think Scandinavian in general have got a good work life, you know, balance in terms of, you know, being serious about what you do work-wise and wanting to get it done properly, but also knowing, you know what, let's knock it on the head. It's time to have a bit. as important as everyone makes it in London and New York, it's ridiculous. Would you ever move out there

and now your daughter's out there? Well, we've talked about it. She's been here for 12 years. She's married. She's actually married to a bloke from Glasgow, believe it or not. She's married and loves it here. And, you know, they've got a good thing going on,

I think, life-wise and everything. Is that how old your daughter now, sorry, Rick? She's 33, yeah, so she's getting on. You're all looking good for age, Rick. Hey, baby, come on. 33-year-old daughter, look at him. I've got a special AI camera. Do you not know that?

I'm not. But you're not tempted to bring her up in Because, say, having a child in Copenhagen and the schooling and the life balance, it feels like that would be a shoeing if you're white, it's Danish. How come she chose the UK? Ironically, I think we did consider it at times. But my wife and I actually worked together. She manages me and has done now for like about 12 years, actually.

Her actual day job, her real job is she's in production. She's a film producer and she's done some TV and video things and different stuff over the years. And she had a little film company in Soho and, you know, made a couple of movies, actual movies and all the rest of it and she was just really really engrossed in that and I think obviously Denmark has got fantastic now especially over the last 20

odd years an amazing cinematic and TV and everything going on there as you know it's all over Netflix and all over you know they very often wins Scandy yeah you know prices all around the world and everything but I think Lena my wife was just really kind of like heavily invested in

the whole thing of being in Soho and everything 30 years ago as well that was It was buzzing then, Soho in London. Exactly. It was a different thing. I mean, the film business was a very different thing, I think. I mean, good God, everything was, wasn't it? You know? Yeah. Because we spoke to, is it Helen Russell,

who's written this book called Living Danishly? Right. I was quite a teller about, like, the differences between parenting in Denmark and the UK. Yeah. Did you two come from very different kind of angles on that then? I think one of the things that Denmark has been very forward in is equality, I think, in every sense of the word for every human. human, by the way, but certainly men and women. Like the first time I ever saw, I know this is

going to freak young people out now and I'm sorry, but I'm old. You know, the first time I ever saw a woman driving a truck, I mean, I'm talking like a proper truck, was in Denmark. The first time I saw a woman on a road crew, like digging up the road and repairing gas pipes was in Denmark with a pickaxing around while two blocs are watching. And all right, that's one version of equality in terms of like a woman being very capable of doing a supposed, what used to be called a man's job and all that. But I just think in terms of just everything, I think they're just like, sounds like I'm working for the tourist board. It's kind of like, they just view things differently. And I think, yes, from an educational point of view, they have got some things that are

very interesting as well. And my brother-in-law's kids are a bit younger, or two of them I should say, actually, she's got one that's the same age as Amelia, our daughter, and he's got two younger ones. I've just seen some certain changes for the better. And I think that's happening in the UK. I mean, I'm so out of that now because our daughter, you know, like I say, she's 33, you know. Has she got her own kids, did you say? Not yet, no, no, not yet.

So hopefully, fingers crossed, who knows? You have no pressure, but yeah, that'll be nice. So how do you feel about being in the UK, though, then they're going to be... I know it's only an hour flight away. I mean, the thing is I don't really like to fly, so I drove here. So, we'll actually get this.

Are you ready for this one? Go on. I drove here from Sorrento in Italy and arrived last time. Wow. No wonder you're sweaty. Exactly. I don't like flying. flying and I...

How long does that take? Too long. You're in the wrong job if you don't like flying. And you married the wrong woman. I've got a delivery service. I do deliver things all over Europe as well for people. Do you that mean? No, I don't.

That was just before someone starts going. Hang on the minute. Yeah, I do fly, obviously. And when we go to America and various other places, I just get on a plane and do it. And very occasionally I'll fly in Europe if I have to, you know, very much fly to Ireland and stuff when we go over there and what have you,

just because, you know, the old nature of it. But bizarrely, I mean, listen, that was a monster journey. that was bonkers. And is that a fear of flying? Yeah, it is. It's a fear of flying, yeah. I used to fly every day, obviously back in the late 80s and scraping into the 90s.

And I just got to a point where also when our daughter was born, I've never tried to put it at her feet because she's obviously not to blame. It was just a lot of changes in my life where I just thought, I want to live a different life and I just want to have more control. And I think that snaps sometimes in people can go from. I want control, so I'm not going to do this. and I'm not going to do that, you know. So it wasn't like an incident, like a bad incident.

Or I've had a few incidents, love, yeah, but they're not going to them here. I've been on flights where they shut an engine down and said, we're going on, you know what I mean? I've been struck by lightning in Japan, which was fine, evidently, but it didn't feel fine at the time. It wasn't, though. I was fine with those flights, actually. We just went back to, I think he was in Australia. We just went back to Sydney or Melbourne. You know, the captain said, oh, we're just going to see about getting the engine looked at and everything.

And everyone screamed, and he said, no, we'll get you another plane then. And off we went to another place. Yeah, I do fly. Obviously, I fly to the States a little bit. And we've toured in Australia and South America in different places in the last decade and so. So I just get on with it then. You know what I mean?

But I think it's just that thing of sometimes you can miss out an awful lot if you just get in a metal tube and get out the other end of it. You arrive somewhere and go, oh, okay. And sometimes that kind of gradual filtering into a place is what's great about it, you know? Well, if you've got the time to as well, and you like a drive, like, I've just looked, it's a 24-hour drive, that was. Talk us through the journey.

Okay, well, the thing is... And is your wife coming with that, or is she flying? She doesn't, she doesn't. So, we've been on the island of Capri, darling, for a few days. The home of the Capri, son? Yeah, and then we... Some friends have been going there for years, and we'd never been, and we said we've come this year.

Anyway, it was fantastic. So we got back, I'd left a car in a little hotel in a town called Sorrento, just across the water. We had a bit of lunch, drove to Rome, which is only a few hours. Yeah. Dropped my wife off of the airport. And then I drove to just outside Florence,

stayed the night in a beautiful little hotel, got up next morning. And then I drove to the Dolomites. And I've been as a kid and I've been skiing there once, but I've never really kind of like, you know, so I drove to the Dolomites and had a bit of a shlet round and got myself a nice lunch and this, that's that and the other and blah, blah. The next run basically was obviously through Austria and Germany

and then it hop into got a boat for there. like that. Germany. I like Germany as a country. I've spent a lot of time in Germany one way or another and I really actually like it and there's some beautiful cities, great cities, great smaller towns and everything.

Their motorways, their autobounds are the worst roads in the world. Sorry, Germany. It's rubbish. It's a myth. This whole thing about, oh, you can do any speed you like. Yeah, for about four minutes. And then you're back down to like, you know, some traffic jam nonsense all the way

across Germany. It's always like that. I love the question. You should try living in Hackney. It takes so long to do the school run. The thought of being stuck on the auto bar and I'd absolutely kill for that, Rick. Yeah, yeah, I'm not so sure you will. Well, come next time.

Next time doing a proper, you know what I mean? It's a TV show in this, Rick Axe's big drives. You won't believe where I've driven. I've driven, other than Perth, I've driven all around Australia. Yeah? Fucking how. I've driven from, you ready for this one?

I didn't do the driving. They wouldn't let me. They sent a very large man with a thing in his pocket. I've driven from South Paulo to Rio. How long is that? You do it in a day You've got to be careful And you've got to know what you're doing

And when to get out of the car And when not to get out of the car That's what this very tall gentleman knew But obviously I had to fly to South Paulo first You know, I do fly So did you drive from the UK to Italy? Oh yeah Are you listening to music?

You listen to podcasts, you listen to the radio I listen to everything I do music obviously I do podcasts, I do audio books all the time I really love that I really love that And what you're driving in Rick because I imagine either a car that's good on the motorway,

but also sworn enough to get around these Italian towns. No, you know, it's not really small enough in that sense. I've got an Audi Q7. Oh, the other thing is, by the way, and this is true, actually. The amount of stuff I brought to and from Denmark, like a bit of old furniture or, oh, could you take this really large bucket or whatever it is? You wouldn't believe, because obviously we have friends here, family,

and all the rest of it. And my wife, Lena, will sort of, you know, see something in her, whatever, and think, oh, that'd be nice on our patio or that. Well, Rick's here. He can get it in the back of the... seats down and off I go. Load up the Q7 and he's off again. Do you ever listen to your own music driving?

No, I listen to obviously when I've been, I've actually made records in the last 10 years and so obviously the whole process of that, you kind of want to. Sometimes you need to be on your own to listen to it because I've made them in my own little studio you see at the back of the house and I play everything and I produce them and I make them. They're like my pet

project, right? So I just do it kind of thing. But obviously you need to listen to it. And I'm not joking, listen to it driving through the Swiss Alps or driving through down to South of France or whatever or somewhere, you know, or Coventry or Coventry is a different experience than being in your studio

listening to the monitors and being hyper-focused on that when you're actually focused on the driving and it's just washing over you, you sometimes hear things that you think, why the hell is that so loud? And what the hell is that chord? That's not the right chord. Things come to you, you know?

Have you watched that documentary about Dr. Dre and the other bloke who came up with the beats headphones? Johnny, is it Ives? I've been in it, I think, yeah. Yeah, it showed them listening to stuff in a car because they needed to hear what it would sound like in a car. Yeah.

And also, crucially, it becomes tax deductible. Is that right? For the car? The journey. And the petrol. I've got to drive through the Swiss Alps. This is part of my creative process. I love to see that on the mail online.

Yeah. Rick Hasley defends trip across Europe as a tour expense. Yeah, well, we'll see. We'll see. This episode is brought to you by Square. You're not just. running a restaurant, you're building something big, and Squares there for all of it, giving your customers more ways to order, whether that's in-person with Square kiosk,

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Canada Life has flexible plans for companies of all sizes, so it's easy to find a solution that works for you. Visit canadalif.com slash employee benefits to learn more. Canada Life, insurance, investments, advice. What's your daughter's relationship to your music? Like, she was born 33, so you were already famous by that point. So what year was that? That was 92 or something like that.

Born in 92, and I probably sort of actually properly quit in about 94, 95, I can't remember. I mean, I was on the slide anyway there, and I'd have enough and everything. Because you basically walked away from music, didn't you? Yeah, I mean, that's the kind of nice and glamorous way of putting it. But I think I'd just had enough. And I think I realized that, you know, take that we're ruling the waves. and it was kind of like, if I'm going to carry on doing this, I've got to do everything that they do,

and I've got to do everything I used to do, and I've now got a child, and I want a life. And I just think, you know, in that sort of pop, the pointy end of pop, if you like, the frothy pointy end of it, you don't get many years. And I mean, there's only, there's Kylie, you know, my God, that woman,

there's Kylie, there's Madonna. No, but I'm serious, you know, if you think about, she came from where I came from, the Stock Aiken Woman thing and everything, and she's still having massive records. It's like, How the hell do you do that, man? It's a mixture of a lot of things,

but she's made of something else, that woman, I'm telling you. Obviously, Madonna's had a massive career in pop music, but not many people do. Bands hang around forever. You can't kill them. Because also they can go solo and then come back again. Yeah, you can't have a Rick Asty reunion tour. I'll give it a go.

It's reunion with himself. So did you, was having a kid a part of that decision then? Well, again, I don't want to lay it at her feet really, but I think some light bulbs were going. off for me, going like, I don't really want to do this. I want to be invested in being a dad. My parents, they're both past now. My parents, bless them, went through nightmares and terrible things, and they divorced when I was four. I'm the youngest of what would have been five kids. They had four kids, and one of them died of meningitis before I was born. And it just leaves

a ghost in the house. It leaves this sort of specter and this kind of thing. And it was an unspoken thing. My mom and dad, I never saw them as an actual couple. After being four, when they got divorced, the only time they were ever in the same room together was when they went to my sister's wedding. They never spoke to each other. They never, what have you. So I grew up feeling, and so I believe, and it's not for me to say this, it's for them to say, but I think my older brothers and my older sister, they're all still in the same relationships. We've all got kids. We've all just said, we're going to try and hang on in there. Do you know what I mean? And listen, I'm not, I'm not in any way promoting staying in a marriage for the sake of it or a relationship for the sake of it,

but I'm sort of saying, I just wanted to say to myself, I want to be able to devote something to this. I want to devote something to being a dad and a partner and this, that and the other. Because my mum and dad, I think,

were just burnt and destroyed, I think. I don't hold it against them in any way, shape. No, they did the best they could. It was just a bit of a mess, really.

And I think relating back to our daughter, Amelia and me being famous and stuff, she didn't really grow up as a small child with me being like on the telly and being famous. It was over, really. By the time she got to me, four and five and going to, you know, nursery and school and the rest of it, I was still kind of famous, you know, I mean, a dinner lady might go,

oh, you know, that's your dad, whatever, but I wasn't famous in the sense of like, if we went up to the local shops, Andy the Greengrocer knew or was, people knew I was, of course, he did, because four or five years ago, I've been having some pretty big record. Yeah. But it's really weird that fainting, I think, where it sort of dies really quickly, but it also kind of sort of stays there forever. Yeah.

That fame of, like, nonsense fame is sort of gone. Yeah. But someone will still spot you. I mean, you guys have it all the time, I'm sure. You know, someone who you think, yeah, not a single person's, oh, hang on a minute, yes, he's just clock me. Do you know what I mean? It's like the stock market. It goes up and down where, like, for example, I did that last one laughing show where they put posters everywhere because it was Amazon.

It was on every bus stop, every train. And in that few weeks, it was nonstop with people coming up to me. But then when that stopped that advertising campaign, it went back sort of normal or a bit, but not that much where it's like, it all goes up and down. But do you guys not feel that today it is different because obviously when I was having my hits way back in the day, social media didn't exist, the internet didn't exist. And so trying to vie for being this month's place on a bus poster or a while of you was a massive different thing. And today it's like you wake up in the morning and whenever you turn, you look at your phone, let's say, you're bombarded with so much stuff that it's like, you know what I mean? And trying to deal with people now. There'd have been a point when you're essentially beyond Mrs Thatcher,

you would have been one of the most famous people in the UK. Do you know what, in about 1987? Do you know what I mean? I think that summer and that winter, yeah, obviously, because obviously never going to give you up, came out in August or whatever it was. How many copies did that sell? Sort of over the years and gone on now. I'm not sure, but I got an award for five million singles in the US recently.

In the US? Yeah, yeah. So I don't know what else it did. But anyway, it was a big deal for, you know, the 15 minutes that you get. And I enjoyed some of it. I did enjoy some of it. Most of it, if I'm really honest, I just felt this is happening

and I'm just kind of like following it, really. I'm not really in it, I don't think. And I think if I would have been in a band, I would have enjoyed fame more, I think. It's not just you on your own. And I didn't develop a character. My name is Rick Astley, even though it sounds like a pickle factory,

Waterman said, Astley's Pickles. Yeah, I did enjoy parts of it, but I also feel a lot of it wasn't me, really. It was just like, I'm seeing that guy, but I'm not sure. It's like the first video. I've said this before, you know, you go along to a video shoot.

No one's got a phone where you can film stuff. Anything being filmed was a freaking event in 1987. I'd never seen a film camera. Never mind, a 25 film crew. Do you know what I mean? And all the rest of it. And you shoot this video in clothes that you brought yourself, bit of Dan in love, strike your t-shirt,

otherworldly, because it's not really you. You look at the thing like a week later or whenever they put a thing together and look, because, again, you couldn't look at it. You looked at it a week later, you know. You just go, is that me? And you go, well, I don't know. That is you dancing around in front of a chain link fence in West London

while some bloke's screaming out the top window, will you shut their fuck up? I'm on night. And that's had a billion views on YouTube. Yeah, a billion. I know. So when you then... A billion.

You step away from it. You've got a kid who's four or five. Are you literally a kind of stay-at-home dad in that, I was to some degree. I mean, I'm not going to lie about this. I wanted to be at home anyway, because I just spent the last five years trolling around everywhere. So I wanted to be at home. We had a lovely home, and I did take our daughters to school sometimes and pick her up, obviously, and do lots of dad things that most dads, certainly then, and even today, don't get a chance to do, because we were in that transition period where lots of moms worked in

1987, of course he did. But I mean, now, now it's like you can't afford to live if both of you working full on all the time. You know what I mean? When I was in school, which is I'm a little bit older than your daughter, but like there was never a dad picking up.

No, just stick the knife in. I'm a little bit older than your daughter. But like there was no dads picking up. Do you know what I mean? So you must be one of the few dads that was there really. Yeah.

Well, I mean, to be honest, I lived in Richmond, which is obviously a beautiful leafy suburb. There were quite a lot of media type people there who, and some famous people there, obviously, and all the rest of it, who didn't have like, you know, proper hours

and all the rest of it. Yeah. Proper jobs, yeah. But don't get me wrong, we had an au pair. And we had different opairs, obviously, throughout, you know, Amelia's upbringing. But the weird thing is, you see, when I was a kid, my mum and dad divorced, like I said, and we went to live with my dad. I think my mum basically had a huge breakdown. I didn't know what that was. It was just my mom kind of wasn't really there some of the time. But she's dealing with grief and, you know, losing a child. She's dealing with so many things, so many things, all kinds of things. My dad basically

got a, I know this is, you know, a bit of Mary Poppins, whatever, but we got a housekeeper. A lovely, lovely woman called Mrs. Hill. She didn't live with us. She just lived down the road. But she was there before I woke up. My older brother, Mike, you know, we were still little kids. And she was there when I came on from school and made us some tea and all the rest of it. And there was a female presence and the house was clean and the house was this.

Because my dad had a little business and he was out of the door early and he was home late sometimes and everything. So I grew up in that. So for me, the idea of having an old pair. Yeah. And I'm from a very, very, very working class town and all my friends were working class So I grew up as that being kind of normal. And so I didn't have any hangups about saying, no, we've got an opal. She lives in.

It's like, yeah, my wife is working, wants to work, wants to devote to that. And obviously she spent a lot of time with Amelia and she wasn't on a 9 to 5 so she could take her into school, pick up, all kinds of things. I think that is, if I could say anything about the parenting that we went through, one of the absolute luxuries was that the fact we didn't have 9 to 5 jobs. Well, I didn't have a job. I didn't have a job full stuff. We had a Walt Disney of a life, I think, in terms of being parents. We really did. I don't feel guilty about it. I just feel very, very lucky. Well, I think particularly considering the childhood you had, the difference of that, you can appreciate it a lot. Yeah, I think I had some very odd things with my dad. I mean, I didn't speak to him in the last 25 years of his life. We fall out up and on, and so would my other siblings with him and stuff, because he was a very unusual man. and I think he would probably be diagnosed with bipolar or something.

And he had a lot of struggles and a lot of problems and everything. And the reason I can say this is because I'm not here to promote this, by the way, but I did an autobiography recently. We'll mention that. So I laid it all out there in terms of my life and everything because I wanted to because my thing was about how do you become a pop star? How do you actually get so far down that line of wanting to get on the stage and do that? And I think it's because of your childhood.

I think most of our shit is because of what happens in your childhood. This isn't the reason I became a drummer in a band I was already a drummer in a band But I once had a bit of an altercation with my dad one morning Because he was never violent with us He was just very, very angry and miserable a lot of the time And upset And we had a bit of an altercation one morning

Over nothing, I didn't even know what it was for But I was on the floor at this point Because he kind of knocked me to the floor And then my next old, this brother Mike came out And he had a great big bread knife And he put it against his throat And he said, if you move, if you move I will fucking end you right here

By this time, I'm on my feet as well. Anyway, I made it up with him after that, believe it or not, but we did, and it was just a weird thing. It was that my brother, Mike, isn't like my brother Mike, by the way, is a chartered accountant, financial director. Oh, one of the good guys. I'll give you a number of you. So did he put the knife to your dad or to you? To your dad, because he was pushing, yeah.

It's a long story. Anyway, the point I'm raising is, and I don't feel in any way, sorry for myself, I think a lot of those experiences that I had as a kid are what molded me and what made me and gave me quite a lot of determination. of like, that's not the life I want. I don't want that. And my dad, bless him, had just freaked out that morning, I think. And my brother, Mike, bless him. I just said, no, enough's enough.

He's not that kind of a guy. I think he just flipped. And I think they both did. And it was a flag in the ground of like, this is changing. Life is changing after this. And it sort of did. I think it steeled me to go,

I don't want that. I want a different life. I never want that to happen. I never want any of that. And like I said, you know, I'm super, super, super proud. and my brothers and my sister because we've all got kids, we've all got families, we're still here, you know,

and we haven't done any of that shit, you know, so. And when you met a lot, obviously you're meeting loads of musicians and at that era and later on, do you think there is like a thing where there's a lot of them have got trauma in their childhood or something they want to come. If I'm honest, yes, I do. Let's not even start with you, Locke. We're the worst.

Oh, we're taking that as red, Rick. We're taking that as red, Rick. Again, I also think it doesn't have to be at knife point. Yes, of course. And that was a one-off. That wasn't a regular. That was extremely a one-off, right? Sometimes certain friends I've had over the years

and also friends' kids who've grown up in a very, very privileged scenario, either because, yeah, their parents made money in music or film or media or what have you, or because from other stuff. And we've talked about, especially when some of them have wanted to get into music and be musicians and stuff, and some of them have struggled a bit, saying like I don't really know because I'm not from a working class background and I didn't have to struggle to get a guitar and I'm like fuck that. Yeah. If you love playing it, you play it. And if that's what you're calling is and your passion is, you go for it because the world doesn't

have to be a Dickensian, you know, I went up cold fucking chimneys to. It doesn't have to be like that. You know what I mean? And I think... Well, no one chooses how they're brought into the world and how they're raised. So they shouldn't be judged for it. It's just... Absolutely. In my book, it's called a class act. It was all about that. In comedy, there's a lot of middle class and up. class people and would go to like Eaton for balling school and then go to Oxford. I didn't go to Eaton. No, that's not.

But dropping your kid off at seven to balling school, that for me is way worse than being a working class kid. And also when I came up, I had no expectation. So no one expected anything of me. Whereas these kids have had everything, the weight on their shoulders from the family and friends is unbearable. I agree with that thing about the weight on your shoulders as well. Because obviously if your dad's mom had done incredibly well,

doing something, whether it's working in the city or design or, you know, singing, whatever it is. It's like, okay, follow that. And I think the generation below my generation, definitely, and maybe the one below you guys, I'm not sure what generation, but there's a part of something.

It's just going to be harder and harder and harder. And so I think it was a naive sort of period of time, the 80s, to be honest. I think if you look back at a lot of music and a lot of stuff that was going on, nobody'd done a lot of things before. Nobody done certain things. You know, MTV wasn't around until whenever it was, I don't know, 84, 85 or whatever, I don't know when it came along.

There's just so many things changed, I think, in music and the way that people promoted music and therefore the way they made it as well. You know, and I think, I don't know, I wouldn't want to be starting out right now. And our daughter is very musical. She's got a really great singing voice. She's musical. She knows what's what, but she never wanted to do that. And obviously she probably could have got into the film business through a mom and all the rest of it and mom's friends and stuff. But I don't think she ever wanted to do that either.

And she's actually a believer in a lot. And I know, again, it's like, you know, how do you get to that? She's a garden designer. She studied art. She still does art projects every now and again and different things. She has a little business and that's what she does. And that's how she's moving in the world. The weird thing is, my dad had a little garden centre.

So it's jumped a whole generation because I love gardens. I like looking at gardens, but I'm never going to work in one. because I did a lot of that's a kid and it's too much from your childhood I've watered enough plants and moved enough grow bags and this that and the other and you know

So do you think your childhood obviously shapes you for good or bad but I think it doesn't all have to be like I say it was a one off moment the bread knife thing and some people have moments where every morning is a bread knife thing and some people have

days when basically something's gone on in the family or a parent was made redundant or there was an accident or just the dynamics of a family can affect how you're brought up and the need for attention you've got and stuff. So, like, with comedians, performers and stuff like that,

it's not that it was all horrendous and traumatic, but certain moments in your childhood can propel you to want to do stuff. And maybe, you know, like for you as well, you want a much calmer, measured childhood for your daughter as opposed to what you're had. And then you've really... And by having that career bake, you know,

how did you deal with that from an ego point of view? You were this megastar that you felt that take that were coming in and you couldn't really compete. And now you're just this guy that sort of, doing the school pickup and people are half recognizing your ego must have suffered at points during that period? Yeah, I think it probably did but I also feel I have a weird

relationship with my ego if I'm honest. I really really do. I've got one, obviously you'd never make a record, you'd never go on a stage if you didn't but I think bizarrely I think I've sort of, I don't always have it in check but I have it in check most of the time. I don't have it in check

when I'm about to perform or when I'm going to do something like this which whether we're going to let the audience in on this, it is a bit of a performance. Nobody does this. This is not a normal thing, right? We don't Zoom most Mondays at 10 a.m. Rick.

No, no. So there is an element of like, we're working, we're on, we're doing our thing, right? Yeah, yeah. But obviously towards like walking to the stage, I sort of become, I don't mean this is that pretentious, but I sort of become somebody else. And I am me, I am me and I talk to the audience from here and I've seen to them from here, definitely. But I'm sort of going like, well, come on, shoulder pads, here we go, let's add it.

But you have to, because otherwise, you can't go on and be like totally. yourself and be like, I'm just, I'm just driven from Sorrento, I'm fucking nothing. Exactly. Yeah, so I have got an ego, don't get me wrong, but I also, I really liked the sort of come down, really, of just going to leave me alone. Did you feel like you've already proven something? No, I don't really feel I've proved anything, to be honest, in that period of time of the 80s and everything.

And obviously, Stockhaking Waterman wrote, they were going to give you up together for my big songs, big in America and all that. And then I wrote some songs, which Waterman really loved, so they ended up being singles and we had hits with them in America as well and blah blah and all that but I don't feel I never really felt like an actual musician I never really felt like a real that's what I do like I said I felt like this guy who was kind of chasing it and behind it all the time going I'm not sure exactly he is he's sort of me but I don't know he's really me and I've kind of felt a bit more like that in the last 10 years like I said because I'm 59 now which is terrifying but there you go

and so when I turned 50 I thought you know what I'd been doing quite a lot of gigs one way or another. I've been doing a lot of, like, sort of rewind gigs with a lot of artists from my period and stuff like that where you just go and sing your hits, do 40 minutes in Europe. Really good fun, and I really loved every second of it. But I just thought, you know what? Bugger it. I'm just going to make a record for me because I want to just prove to myself what I can do.

So I just started making a record at home, made it in my garage, did the theme tune. Now, I played every instrument, did everything. It was just me in the garage doing this thing, right? Yeah. So I made a record. my wife started managing me around that time he said I re-signed with my old label and we put it out and we had a number one album with it

that's mad yeah and we sold tons of physical copies because even nine years ago older people liked a physical copy so we sold bucket loads of them and the reason I'm sort of bragging about that is I've sort of felt more like a musician in the last 10 years than I ever did back in the 80s because I sort of look at the band and Simon our drummer accounts the song in, and I'm like, yeah, I did that.

It feels like I'm about to play something I did, you know what I mean? Even though I wrote some of the goddamn songs that we still sing to this day from the 80s, but it was in a bubble. It was in this weird sort of like, I was young, you know, I was a kid. Yeah, but how old were you, Rick, when you got signed by the... I was 19 when I signed, 21 when the first record came out. You're a baby, you know. Yeah, yeah.

And also, to be fair, I was so lucky to meet the stock at King, Hortman guys and so lucky that they wrote never going to give you up because it's just been a game changer all my god damn life right and still is to this day but it also it came with the sticky end of the stick sometimes as well do you know what I mean because you wouldn't be aware of this ask you older relatives they dominated for quite a period of time yeah they were massive yeah and it was also the music press fucking hated them yeah like hated them and instead of going like we don't care we're just doing what we're doing Pete would rail against that so we'd go, right, we're going to make a record with a journalist and we're going to make a record with a fridge, right, we're going to make a record with a, do you know what I mean? It's just whatever. And it became a little bit of a sort of a nonsense at times. You know, they made some great records. Spin me around to this day is one of my all-time favorite pop songs when it comes on. I hear that tune and I made tea on that album, by the way. So I hear that record and I just think, that it's just a monster record. It just sounds amazing. You should basically a candidate for like one of those fucked up pop star people, really.

considering he was 19 you went through all of that then it all changed a bit with the bands coming in and you took a career break but you seem really measured about it really sort of calm and in control and happy was you treated well and you were quite lucky with that or have you done a lot of work to get to this point I've done a lot of therapy yeah and that wasn't just over obviously the five years and what had gone on in music and everything

it was kind of as I said what led me there and what leads everybody there I think but also yeah it was sort of trying to unravel a little bit of that and who am I because I think you see I know you guys as well obviously make videos of a new tour and then that goes on Netflix or it goes on whatever I get all of that

but we were like this sort of promotion machine if you know what I mean the end of the 80s in real pop music it was like again you know I flew every day because you couldn't do what you do now if you're duelie or Sabrina Carpenter or something you can just do Instagram posts you can just do

TikTok. Those ladies work like no one I've ever seen to be fair but they don't have to be on going live and then be in Munich and then be in Copenhagen or whatever I remember once actually just to we were in Australia funnily enough and we were doing promo in let's say it was in Sydney and we had to go to Melbourne to this thing

and they said we're going to put you on a regular plane but then you'll walk off the plane and get into a helicopter and it was one of those bubble helicopters as well where you could see through it and that was fine with flying I was like this is great you know I was absolutely fine with it

because we're going to get you on this sort of TV show it was like this mad things that we've got to get one for two TV shows in a dare and they got me to this TV show and basically the guy just took the piss at me for five minutes. So I just stood there just looking at him, going, you fucking. And I didn't say it, but that's what's on my face, because I've just flown, you know, what would be a 10-hour drive.

I was into flying, it's like, got on a blina, like, what a wanker, get off, walk down the steps and walk over to a helicopter by everybody and got into a helicopter and went to this other TV show, basically for the guy to take the piss off. But anyway, yes, there was a lot of stuff that you had to do back then that you just perhaps doing a very, very different way today, yeah. And now, your tour is on sale now. It's April 2020. Wow, you segued into that one, yeah.

April 2026. So it's on sale now. Yeah. Like, you are, in the last five years, one of the most iconic Glastonbury performances was you on the pyramid stage. Thank you. You've become a kind of,

I imagine you'd hate this. A national treasure, Rick. I will love that. I want a badge that says national treasure. Never mind. Yeah. But like you've been re-embraced in the way. You went away and then you've come back.

Yeah. You have reformed. Yeah. That Glastonbury in particular, I think, was a bit of a moment for everyone who's... Was your daughter there? Yeah, she was there. She was steaming my trousers at the back of the stage at one point. She gave me a really good bit of advice because she's been to Glaston me loads of times and I'd never even been.

And my wife and I went out, we were first on 12 o'clock pyramid stage. So that's terrifying anyway. Walked out there. Nobody in the audience. just thought, oh my God, this is going to be a disaster. So this is half an hour before, you know. Went back to the dressing room, getting the suit on all the rest of it. And my daughter just said, look, whatever happens,

just go and enjoy it anyway. Your band's up there. You love your band. You love working with it. You'll be fine. Just go and do it. And I think she sort of knew because she's being so many times. She knew they'd sort of come.

Yeah. And I didn't know that. And so by the time we walked up there, we're having a Yeager at the side of the stage, as we do. Is that how you start every gig? Every gig. Every gig. Is that a new thing of your?

always done that? I've done it for more than 10 years. We've got her on Yeager machine. Put the right temperature and everything. Comes in its own flight case. Anyway, so we walked out and it was just mad. It was just this huge audience that had rolled out of tents and sleeping bags and I don't know how

they got there, but they got there. And it was just absolutely amazing. And then I don't know whether you guys know this, but I then went and did a set with blossoms. I was at that, Rick. I was at that set. It was one of the best hours of my life. You're doing the Smiths for Blossoms. Oh, my God. I had the time of my life.

So did I. Would you have in that 1987 thought, do you know what? There's going to be a point when I am a hundred times cooler than Morris Sears.

We can't even get into that. That's a different way. I think the beauty of it is, we've still got amazing crystal. Yeah, the hairline's outrageous. You're fucking smashing it there. The beauty of that is, I think,

is that for me was that I'd love the Smith since I was a teenager. My brother Mike got me into them. You're from the Northwest, right? Yeah, I'm talking about. I'm close to Manchester, yeah, and I think, but that wasn't it. It was just, they were something else. They were just completely something else.

They were unique in every sense of the word. Musically, lyrically, performance, everything about them was so different. And I loved them. And then I met Blossoms, and we sort of chatted a bit and all the rest of it. And I threw this thing at them, because we were talking on their podcast, actually, about music from Manchester. And I said, look, in another universe, before I pop it, I want to go and do a night where I just sing Smith songs, because I just want to do it.

And they got back to me. a little while later and said, well, we thought about it and we'd like to be the band. We'll be the band. So we had a little rehearsal. I shed a few tears. I think one or two of the guys in the band did at the rehearsal because it was just unbelievable. It was just like what is going on. They're younger than my daughter.

For me, that was part of why I felt it was so amazing because they, obviously, I've got this deep, deep love of that music. You were there then, Josh. The audience was from older people, older than me even, to teenagers. saying along. Do you know what I mean? It was like... Wash of love and amazing gorgeousness. And it was just amazing. And so that weekend for me was like completely bonkers.

And I felt that all the people who've sort of been helping me get my shit together over the past 10 or 12 years as well and doing all the work behind the scenes and everything to get things to happen and to be visible and to actually have a record that people might... I know you didn't because you're too young, but people who would go, oh my God, that dude's got a record again and actually go and buy it, you know, was amazing. It was almost like box tips, thank you very much,

you know what I mean? And it was just, it was... Would you be doing any Smith songs on tour? No, because I think it's its own universe that. And I don't know whether we'll ever do it. Would you do it again? I would do it again,

I would have a thing, but I think also if you... I mean, blossoms have had an amazing sort of 18 months and they are now Mark called Gary, which I think is the best one they've ever made. I think live, they've just gone up totally into a totally different level. They're just a different animal, I think, these days.

It's not like either of us needed to do it, It certainly didn't do it for money or anything like that. There was no money in it. It wasn't about that. It was just about doing it. It feels like you coming out as a guest on their tour could be the one, just doing one song on the tour in London or over. Listen, I go to every gig they do, to be honest, if they're just, they are amazing.

If you've not seen them, by the way, make the effort. They're really, really good live. They're just so great records. Of course, they make great records. And that speaks to themselves. But I think if you go and see it live, you just see something else. It's a different beast altogether, I think, today. Miller Light. The light beer brewed for people who love the taste of beer and the perfect pairing for your game time.

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Also, can I say how much I love the title of your autobiography, just called Never. Boom. So good. It's so good. It's a great picture as well. So, yeah, that's available to Alder now for your website, Rick Astley. Indeed. Dot co.

So where are you playing? We are playing Glasgow Hydro, Newcastle Utiliter Arena. Is that how you pronounce that? She's knocking arenas out for fun. No, I wait till the end. Wait till the end. Belfast, SSE, Dublin A3 Arena, Liverpool, MS Bank Arena. Manchester Co-Up Live, Leeds First Direct Arena,

Bournemouth International Centre, Cardiff Utility Arena, Nottingham Motorpoint Arena, Birmingham Resorts World Arena, and London, the O2, get in. Yes, and is that your first arena tour? I've played pretty much all those arenas, not done the O2 on my own before. I've still got it a bunch of times different charity things.

No, I've played all those arenas probably three times already in the last 10 years. I've got a number one album, mate. I love it. I love it. I love it. We're living in the age of Rick Astley. Have you been to see your Ais, Rick?

I went to see them in Manchester. Absolutely incredible. You know what I really loved about everything about all of that? Was they just didn't mess about. They came out like they'd been sleeping in a fridge for all these years. I just went, we're having this. And so are you. Boom.

And then they played all the songs everybody wants to hear. There was none of that sort of like, oh, right. they've got back together. Listen, I'm sure they're going to make pots on it, and I hope they bloody do. Yeah. It didn't feel like that for a split second. It felt like this just needs to be done,

and finally we're doing it. And whether they're going to go on doing it, who knows? It kicked off and it never stopped. Sorry, have you been. Robaz, I'm going in September. Oh, my God. It's so good. It was so good.

And they didn't fuck around. They played all the songs everybody wants to wear. It's really efficient. All the song. So tight and on it. So good. And they looked like they were loving, like he was loving, doing his guitar.

They were enjoying the actual performing part of it. And you know what, as well? I mean, there was 80,000 people for how many goddamn nights they did in Manchester. And it felt like quite a lot of love going on. I'm sure there was a few moments out in the back of the way. There's no ag or aggression. There's no ag.

The audience, we're all in the mood for it. I saw some of Richard Ascroft as well. It was incredible. Didn't get there to see cast, unfortunately, but I'm going to try and go again in September, so I'll go early next time. It was just really, really, really good. If you want another injection of music,

musical gods in your veins, on sale September 5th, Rick Astley, April the 10th to April the 25th, arenas all over the country. It's been amazing, Rick. Thank you so much. I'm not 100% sure the oasis mob are going to be coming to my gigs, but you never know. You'll be surprised. You never know. You never know. Now, Rick, we always finish with the same question. This question is, what's the one thing your wife does as a parent that you're in awe of and like, oh my God, she's amazing. I'm so lucky to have a child with her and what's the one thing she does that frustrates she slightly and if she was to listen to the show she might go yeah he's got a point there oh my word okay there's so many

but i'm going to get emotional going to have to hang on to this she's made our daughter what she is and without her god knows what she'd be as simple as that she has that's the best answer we've had to that and i presume you mean that as the positive oh do me well yeah she's been fucking up gardens in Copenhagen for years. That's fantastic. And I think the only thing I wish you could do is just fucking look at a watch at some point and go, oh yes, we are leaving

at this time or that time or whatever. Rather than, you know, she's got a very liquid view of time, do you know what I mean? She's probably a physicist on the slide, but anyway. And you're very much wheels up at 3am from Sorrento kind of guy, aren't you? You don't make it from Sorrento to prepping Copenhagen And if you don't have a, you know, you won't believe this, by the way.

In an hour and a half, I'm going to Stockholm. You're going to Stockholm? Oh, yeah. He loves it. That cute senous on to models. Oh, wait. What are you doing in Stockholm? Some friends, but actually, you know, this is an aside of,

I'm going to end up doing a bleeding TV show tomorrow night because some friends of ours know some of them. And this one said, oh, would you get? And I'm like, really? I'm like, I'm kind of on holiday. Do you know what I mean? Are you singing or just guesting? Yeah, I'm going to sit in and chat

and I'm going to go and sing with the housepan. I'm going to go sing never going to give you up, obviously. I'm going to come on a holiday, but it'll be great, to be honest. And I'm so looking forward to you. We're not being up to Stockholm for ages and we've got some really, really good Swedish friends who lived in London

and all our kids kind of know each other and whatever. And so I'm looking forward to it. And now I'm doing a bleeding TV while I'm there. Do you get bored of singing? The last question. Go on. How do you feel when you sit?

Because I often think this about, like, you two or the Rolling Stones or stuff. How emotionally invested is Bono when he sings, the streets have no name, when he sung it 2,000 times? Well, to be fair, to the two gods of music you just mentioned, they've got a few. They've got a few songs. But there's still some that they're playing every night. And they're also, believe it, not older than I am,

but I also think we've got a much broader canon to use that word to say, like, with me, it's kind of like, if I don't sing never going to give you up, there's trouble. so I can't ever do a gig without doing that whereas they could leave streets of no name out of a set and sort of get away with it I'm sure people would be like what but they could get away with it so I view it very differently to I think a lot of people

and I kind of think the only reason I get to do most of the fantastic stuff I do in my life and I've done in my life and lucky enough to do those things is because of that goddamn song so I'm singing it and whenever I do a radio thing and they kind of like apologetically say oh we're going to start we're never going to

I'm like, get it on. Because that's the other way people connect the dots and go, oh, that guy, yeah. I think you're a fool to yourself if you run away from things. All right, not everything in your past, but things that have put you where you are today, you've got to acknowledge them because otherwise everyone else is. You're the idiot if you're pretending that's not why you're there. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I still get showered at me. You're going to eat chicken next to a bin tonight, Rob, because I did one Instagram video. I've eaten chicken by a bin. I just have to accept that, right? I understand your pain. That's who I am. I'm a bit more proud

I'm never going to give you up than eating chicken out of the bin as you should be, Rick. As you should be. There's levels. Rick, thank you so much. It's been a joy of speech. No, thank you.

I really enjoyed it. It's been good for. Good luck with the tour. Rick Astley. So I just had a quick sniff of olbers oil. Yeah, no. You have a sniffer of orbosol. I've all blocked up.

I've got sinus problems. Rick Astley, everyone. I loved him. He's such a nice bloke, isn't he? And so, I just so, I just so interesting and switched on and honest. Because it's weird. When you first do it, it's always a bit sticky at the start with whoever you interview

because we're on Zoom and we're chatting and stuff. And I do think, especially someone like Rick, will think all their comedians are just going to try and take the piss out of me. Yeah. And then as soon as they know, we're not, and with normal people, that then lets his guard down. But that was great. Loved him. Love him. Love him. Go and see him on

tour. All the arenas. In April, 2026. Are you smashing it, isn't he? Oh, my gosh. Imagine earning all that money from never going to give you up, then knock out your own album and still sell out arenas oh unbelievable go and see him go and see him buy the book buy the book get the book