Rick Astley admits fame is his biggest disappointment.

Rick Astley

Rick Astley

The 52-year-old pop star has sold more than 40 million records during his career and has travelled around the world with his music, but Rick still feels underwhelmed by fame.

Asked to name his biggest disappointment, Rick replied: "Fame. The upside is not worth the downside - you can't turn fame on and off, and have privacy."

Despite his success, Rick frequently finds himself feeling unhappy.

But the British star is always able to turn to music to transform his gloomy outlook.

He explained to the Guardian newspaper: "I wouldn't go so far as to say I've got depression, but I wake up some days and I am just not very happy.

"I have to get myself into a better mood, and music does that for me quite often."

Asked which trait he most dislikes about himself, Rick added: "Single-mindedness."

Rick actually retired from making music in 1993, at the age of 27, and he previously explained that he'd simply grown tired of the industry at that point.

The singer revealed he had other ambitions he wanted to explore, rather than committing his life to music.

Rick - who returned to the business in 2001 - said: "I'd been doing the same thing for so many years. Now it doesn't seem like any amount of years, but then it was a quarter of my life.

"I was a young guy and I was like, 'I don't want to be doing that every single day of my life. I want to hang out with my friends. I've made a lot of money. I want to spend some of it. I want to do the things I want to do.'"


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