How did Rick Astley end up performing with Foo Fighters?

14 January 2019, 14:00 | Updated: 14 January 2019, 14:01

The 80s legend told Chris Moyles about how Dave Grohl dragged him onstage for an epic version of Never Gonna Give You Up.

Rick Astley has re-lived the moment he was called on stage by the Foo Fighters.

The Never Gonna Give You Up singer has performed three times with the Learn To Fly rockers, but revealed he had no idea what was going to happen the first time he took to the stage with them in Japan.

"I met those guys in such a weird unplanned way," he told Radio X's Chris Moyles. "It was just nuts, so that was amazing."

Watch him explain all to our video above.

Talking about getting to the side of stage to watch the band, he explained: "So [Dave Grohl] just clocks me at some point, but I thought he was looking at other people, because Chris Shiflett, who's one of the guitar players, he'd come over and given a hug to someone on side of stage..."

The 80s legend added: "And he just came and gave me a big hug. And then 20 minutes later, a guy walks over and handed me a mic and I'm looking at Dave Grohl and he's now looking at me beckoning me over."

He continued: "I don't know what's gonna happen right now. I'm really jet lagged as well, which really helped if I'm honest. And I just had no clue what was going on. I didn't know whether he was going to say: 'Everyone, this is that dude'.

"So we walked out there and he just whispers in my ear 'We're going to do your tune, but it's going to sound a bit like Smells Like Teen Spirit."

Referring to why he screamed: "Come on you motherfuckers" to the crowd, Astley confirmed: "People think I was trying to be rock n' roll. I was just crapping myself".

Rick Astley went on to recreate the magic moment with the Foos at their future gigs.

Watch him perform his hit with the Learn To Fly rockers at The O2, London: