Rick Astley isn’t giving the U.S. up, or letting it down

The man who inspired the infamous internet “rick-roll” is performing in the U.S. for the first time in 25 years Wednesday and Thursday, and both shows are already sold out.

British pop singer Rick Astley is scheduled to perform at The Box in New York City on Wednesday and the Troubadour in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to his website.

“I have a lot of good memories about America, so I'm looking forward to it for sure,” he told Billboard earlier this month.

Astley, 50, has sold about 40 million records worldwide. But the singer is best known not for his chart-topping “Never Gonna Give You Up,” song released in 1987, but for the internet prank it inspired.

Rick-rolling involves posting a link to “Never Gonna Give You Up” but making those who see it believe the link leads somewhere else. Those who are fooled and click the link are said to have been rick-rolled.

The bait-and-switch originated on a site called 4chan in May 2007, when someone posted a link to Astley’s music video disguised as a sneak preview for the then newly released video game Grand Theft Auto IV, according to Know Your Meme. The prank was limited to 4chan for a while but eventually spread to the rest of the internet.

While the performances in NYC and L.A. are his first official performances in the U.S. in 25 years, Astley did perform at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2008, unexpectedly coming out of a float and rick-rolling all of America.

The most famous rick-roll recently was, oddly, during the Republican National Convention. It’s unclear if it was inadvertent, but the Republican presidential nominee’s wife, Melania Trump, said during her speech that Donald Trump “will never, ever, give up. And, most importantly, he will never, ever, let you down.”

This story was originally published August 10, 2016 at 8:51 AM with the headline "Rick Astley isn’t giving the U.S. up, or letting it down."