Rick Astley has shared a new cover of Foo Fighters‘ classic track ‘Everlong’ – you can check out the video below.
The ’80s star struck up an unlikely friendship with Foos frontman Dave Grohl back in 2018 when he was invited to join the band onstage at Japan’s Summer Sonic festival. Together they performed Nirvana‘s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ before breaking into Astley’s hit ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’.
Since then they’ve reunited on several occasions – including at last year’s Reading Festival and a surprise performance at Club NME.
Taking to his official YouTube channel last week (June 18), Astley paid tribute to his favourite band by performing his own rendition of their 1997 single ‘Everlong’.
“Sometimes you just have to find the song that’s gonna lift your spirits and put you in another place, and I’ve been doing that a lot recently with music,” Astley explained at the top of the acoustic performance.
“And one of the bands I always go to – believe it or not – is Foo Fighters, so here we go. Here’s my version of a song of their’s called ‘Everlong’.”
Late last year, Astley expressed his hopes of teaming up with Foo Fighters for a potential collaborative single. “I would be well up for releasing it, maybe for charity one day,” he said.
Discussing his continued confusion over his initial guest appearance with the Foos, Astley explained: “I never met them [before], I have no idea why [Grohl would] invite me onstage.
“I didn’t know what it was all about. And then he just kind of whispered and said, ‘We’re doing your tune, but we’re gonna do it like ‘Teen Spirit”, and that was it. And off we went.”
During last year’s Club NME re-launch, where Dave Grohl performed an intimate solo set, Astley played drums on ‘Times Like These’ and ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, with Grohl taking on vocals. You can see highlights of the evening in the above video.