--- title: The Foo Fighters Team Up With Rick Astley to Rick Roll Crowd description: The Foo Fighters, who were headlining Tokyo’s Summer Sonic festival, brought a meme to life on Sunday with Rick Astley canonical: https://time.com/4908498/foo-fighters-rick-astley-rick-roll/ author: Tara John article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-21T11:53:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:37.823Z og:title: The Foo Fighters Just Rick Rolled An Entire Crowd og:description: With a little help from a very special guest og:url: https://time.com/4908498/foo-fighters-rick-astley-rick-roll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Foo Fighters Just Rick Rolled An Entire Crowd twitter:description: With a little help from a very special guest twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Foo Fighters Teamed Up With a Special Guest to Rick Roll An Entire Crowd by [Tara John](https://time.com/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Aug 21, 2017 11:53 AM UTC by [Tara John](https://time.com/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Aug 21, 2017 11:53 AM UTC [The Foo Fighters](http://time.com/4245869/foo-fighters-breakup-rumors-video-dave-grohl/), who were headlining Tokyo’s Summer Sonic festival, brought a meme to life on Sunday when they invited 80’s pop icon [Rick Astley](http://time.com/4718246/april-fools-day-funniest-viral-pranks/) onstage to sing a grunge version of his “Never Gonna Give You Up.” “We just learned this today. Ladies and gentleman, would you please welcome our new best friend, Rick Astley,” Foo Fighter’s frontman Dave Grohl told the audience before the British pop-star appeared on stage. “This is f\*\*king crazy. I just met him two minutes ago” Grohl said. “Come on you motherf—kers” yelled Astley as the band began to play the instrumental version of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” He then “Rick Rolled” the audience by singing his own lyrics to “Never Gonna Give You Up” over the music. You can watch the clip below. **Warning:** Adult language. Rick Rolling is an internet meme, which started around 2007, where a prankster creates a fake link leading viewers to the music video for Astley’s 1987 hit. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4908498/foo-fighters-rick-astley-rick-roll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4908498/foo-fighters-rick-astley-rick-roll/"},"headline":"The Foo Fighters Teamed Up With a Special Guest to Rick Roll An Entire Crowd","datePublished":"2017-08-21T11:53:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:37.823Z","description":"\"I just met him two minutes ago\"","url":"https://time.com/4908498/foo-fighters-rick-astley-rick-roll/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Music","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara John","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-john/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4908498/foo-fighters-rick-astley-rick-roll/","name":"The Foo Fighters Teamed Up With a Special Guest to Rick Roll An Entire Crowd"}}]}] ```