Foo Fighters “rickrolled” the audience at Tokyo’s Summer Sonic festival Sunday by having Rick Astley join the band on a grungy version of his “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
This is fucking crazy,” Grohl said before the performance. “I just met [Astley] two minutes ago.” The singer was also booked for the Summer Sonic fest.
After introducing the singer behind the 1987 hit – which became the punchline in the viral prank “rickrolling” in the internet age – Foo Fighters launched into what sounded like the intro to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
However, it soon became evident that Dave Grohl and company were performing “Never Gonna Give You Up” in the style of the Nevermind classic.
“Fucking nuts. You’re nuts,” Astley told the band as he walked offstage.
The Summer Sonic audience weren’t the first recipients of a Foo Fighters “rickroll”: In August 2015, Foo Fighters served up “Never Gonna Give You Up” from a flatbed truck as they drove by Westboro Baptist Church members that were protesting the band’s Kansas City concert.
Grohl told the Sprint Arena crowd of the prank later that night, “We figured, you know what, why don’t we just fucking rickroll their ass? Cause nothing says love like a little Rick Astley in your life, you know what I’m saying? Never gonna give his ass up!”