Rick Astley has opened up on retiring from music in the 1990s, admitting he felt “guilty” for not “loving” his early success.
The star rose to fame as part of Stock Aitken Waterman’s legendary Hit Factory and topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with his iconic single Never Gonna Give You Up.
He landed another US chart topper with Together Forever but quit music in 1993 to spend time with his partner Lene Bausager and daughter Emilie, who was one year old at the time.
Speaking to Rachel Burden and Rick Edwards on BBC Radio 5 Live, he 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.
“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.”
He returned to the public eye in 2001 with his ‘Keep It Turned On’ LP and later launched back to the top of the charts with ’50’, beginning a renaissance that continues to this day.
Insisting music has always been “a part of [his] DNA”, Rick added: “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.”
