Rick Astley reveals brutal first take on Kylie Minogue as he makes 'snooty' admission

Rick Astley has told how he thought Kylie Minogue's first single would be a "one off" and she would go back into acting.

The 80s star, famous for hits like Together Forever, was already working with pop producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman(SAW) when they managed to get Kylie to Britain to record I Should Be So Lucky on Waterman's PWL record label.

Writing in his new autobiography, Never, Rick says: "They had a new artist, an Australian actress called Kylie Minogue. The soap opera she was in, Neighbours, was huge in Britain at the time, and she'd already released a single in Australia, a cover of The Locomotion.

"My friend Mike Duffy had produced it very much in the style of SAW. He told me she was great, but I've got to be honest, when I first heard about her, I thought it was Mandy Smith all over again. SAW making a record with someone because they were famous, without any thought as to whether they were a singer: God, as if people don't think they're naff enough already now they're making a record with a soap star.

"My snootiness lasted about 10 seconds after I met her face to face. She was fantastic. She was so warm and lovely, so completely without airs and grace is so normal, despite the fact that, at the moment, Neighbours was on TV twice a day. 18 million people watched it, and she was definitely the star of the show. In a way, I felt sort of protective towards her, because I knew what she had coming. I Should Be So Lucky was obviously going to be a huge hit."

But he adds: "Kylie seems such a sweetheart I hope she was ready for it. Still, I thought, it won't last long for her - it might even be a one off. She's bound to go back to acting, it's not as if she's going to make a career out of being a singer."

But Rick could not have been much more wrong. According to the official charts, Kylie now has seven UK Number 1 singles and nine UK Number 1 albums. In November 2020, Kylie's 15th studio album DISCO went to number one and helped Australian singer Kylie make chart history as the first ever female artist - and second artist overall - to claim a UK Number 1 album in five consecutive decades.

For his part Rick is quick to admit how wrong he was in the book and also to praise Kylie and say how lovely she is. The pair remain firm friends.

Also in the book Rick tells the story of how he ended up with his wife Lene. They got together when he was just 21 and he finished with a previous girlfriend.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald about their relationship, Rick said: "I fell in love with her the day I met her. I did get to see her briefly again a few weeks later in London, then a year after that over a cup of tea while on tour in Denmark. We started writing to each other and I'd rack up some big phone bills calling her from all over the world."
Rick, who grew up in Lancashire, rose to fame in the 80s and became a worldwide sensation with Never Gonna Give You Up in 1987.

Never The Autobiography by Rick Astley is out now, published by Macmillan.

Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .