“Bizarre and weird and wonderful” — that’s how Rick Astley describes his decades-long career as a pop star.

He’s not just talking about “Rickrolling,” the long-running meme that tricks people into clicking on a link that unexpectedly plays the music video for Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Astley, 56, has kept things interesting in other ways. He’s been a surprise guest during Foo Fighters shows. He’s covered Smiths songs alongside indie-pop band Blossoms. He has amassed 3 million TikTok followers and showcased his versatility on YouTube covers of Gayle’s “abcdefu” and Post Malone’s “Better Now.” Last month, he surprised Kelly Clarkson with a surprise performance on her talk show.

He’s embracing every bit of it, deftly balancing the nostalgia with newer projects. Astley self-produced and wrote every song on his last two albums, 2018’s “Beautiful Life” and 2016’s “50.” The latter was his first album in three decades to top the U.K. chart.

“I think a lot of things in my life have just been ridiculous,” Astley says. That includes the current interview. Earlier this month, he had pulled off the road in a parking lot, en route to Cincinnati for the first of 57 Mixtape Tour dates alongside New Kids on the Block, Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue. They’ll throw it back May 19 at Toyota Center.

“We just weren’t from an era where you thought many of us would last for 25 years, being played one way or another, at all. But I think the internet has changed that,” Astley says. He teamed up with his tour mates for last year’s nostalgic “Bring Back the Time” single.

“Somehow, something like ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ is chosen to be a meme, to become “Rickrolled,” and there’s no way of deciding that. It’s just a happy accident. It’s kinda the song that keeps giving.”

Astley was 21-years-old when that song made him a worldwide star. It topped the charts in two dozen countries, including the U.S. He followed it with another U.S. No. 1, “Together Forever,” and three more top 10 singles, eventually selling more than 40 million albums worldwide. Astley veered into soul and adult contemporary later in his career, but his shiny brand of dance-pop is what fans continue to cling to.

This month, BMG released an expanded edition of Astley’s debut album, “Whenever You Need Somebody,” to mark its 35th anniversary. It features a slew of remixed and reimagined versions of the original singles. Last year, “Never Gonna Give You Up” soundtracked a key scene in the Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso,” and the music video soared past 1 billion YouTube views.

“It showed me the world,” Astley says of his enduring hit. “It’s paid for me to have a really nice life. I don’t forget how lucky I was, and I don’t regret anything that happened to me in terms of all the ‘Rickrolling’ and memes, any of that. There’s nothing to regret in having this pop song that still lights the fire every now and again and keeps your world turning.”

Despite the joy much of it still brings him, Astley effectively “quit” the music business for more than a decade, releasing albums and performing live sporadically. Upon its release, “50” was his first album in 11 years. He focused on family, including wife of almost two decades, Lene Bausager, and daughter Emilie who was born in 1992.

报价来执行在日本改变了主意。的family looked at it as a holiday, and Astley has continued to approach his career with that same outlook to this day.

“Some people remember my name, they remember a few songs. But I’m not actually famous. I’m outside a Target right now, and I could stand here whistling ‘Never Gonna Give You Up,’ and not one person would bat an eyelid,” Astley says. “And yet, I’ll be playing to 15,000 people a night with Salt-N-Pepa and New Kids on the Block, and I think pretty much everyone in the room will remember most of the songs. I find that really bizarre and weird and wonderful. I don’t take it for granted, and I think I’ve got the best of both worlds.

“Do you need anything from Target while I’m here, by the way? Thank God, I’ve only come in for a coffee because they’ve got a Starbucks here. God bless Target.”

joey.guerra@chron.com