It must be exhausting maintaining a Mr Nice Guy reputation.

Every interview you do, every little trip you take outside of the house to pop to the shops or go to the pub, there's a risk that you'll be having a bad day and someone will recognise you and report back that you're not actually that nice.

But rest easy, fans of one of the greatest exports of the Stock Aitken Waterman hit factory, probably second only to Kylie - Rick Astley is down to earth and eager to please a mere regional journalist with interview answers that belie the fact he has been in the industry for more than three decades.

Rick, 52, is a talker and doesn't do succinct answers, despite the fact that approval is something he really doesn't need.

His great comeback, the album 50, a cheeky nod to Adele's age-titled LPs, was released in 2016 to much critical acclaim. It was recorded in his home studio and sold 150,000 copies, making it the eighth best selling album in the UK that year. Eat your heart out Adele!

Rick tells me: "The success of 50 was a bit of a surprise for me. Everyone involved had no explanation whatsoever of why it had done so well."

Rick has just finished recording a new album, but faithful to his industry bosses, politely tells me there's not much he can say on the new album until he has sat down and had a chat with his record company.

"I can tell you it's not going to be called 52! It's quite funny all of that, but Adele is such a huge superstar I'm sure she's not even aware of what I'm doing.

"I'm sure she'd think it's pretty humourous that some old boy made a record in his home studio and it did so well. And I can also tell you that I haven't gone all Calvin Harris for the new album - I wouldn't want to embarrass my daughter!"

As a 21-year-old Rick became an instant sensation with the Stock, Aitken and Waterman record label, with Never Gonna Give You Up becoming the best-selling single of 1987 and going to number one in 16 countries. Rick's debut album Whenever You Need Somebody sold 15 million copies worldwide and cracked the US top 10.

But Rick had had his fill of the music world by 1994 when he decided to retire, aged 27. I ask him what life was like during those 'wilderness years'.

"If I'm blatantly honest I felt that I wanted to redo those missing years. I missed out on growing up and I went from being a 19-year-old when I started to record to making a lot of money. I had no idea how stuff works. I never paid any bills myself, although the money was being taken from what I was earning, but I would just get up from a table and walk away and someone else would pay the bill. It would be like being treated like a kid.

"In that time away I wanted to find out about stuff. I was quite a young dad, my daughter's 26 now and I wanted to spend some time at home and I wanted to so something in music that didn't involve me at the front of it."

I find that Rick uses the phrase 'blatantly honest' a lot when talking about his life - this is a music veteran who's happy to lay it all bare. "I tried to make music but if I'm blatantly honest I didn't have the chops to do it. Trying to make music for someone else is a different kettle of fish."

But fast forward a few years and with 50 Rick proved himself to be a true musical talent.

He not only wrote all the songs and produced it but played all the instruments on it too: drums, piano, bass, plus electric and acoustic guitar.

Rick says he can't wait to come to Dorset and play Camp Bestival. He'll be headlining the Castle Stage on the festival's Friday night, July 27.

"I remember going on holiday to Dorset as a kid," he said. "We stayed at a couple of cottages as a family and I remember we could throw a football from one end to the other. I've spent a lot of time in Southampton on the water and in the countryside around there and it's a beautiful area."

And the ever humble Rick - despite the success of 'Rickrolling' in 2007, which swept the internet as a prank and meme involving unexpected appearances of the Never Going to Give You Up video sent as hyperlinks - just hopes that festival-goers will be able to put up with him.

"I think festivals are echoing what happens with the internet, people of any age can go and find a record and it opens up different artists to different people. People go to festivals and they may want to see a certain act and sometimes people end up enjoying it even if they don't mean to.

"It's funny with the younger audience at festivals, I suppose I feel a bit like 'Uncle Rick' at times. But it's good that I can get people dancing along because they may have seen me on the internet."

Before Camp Bestival Rick is setting out on a tour of the US and Canada and has already sold out his Canadian shows.

"I'm lucky I can go and do gigs in America. I've sold a lot of physical CDs there and I think they are a bit more forgiving out there as things don't seem to go in and out of fashion as fast as in this country. Although country music has gone a bit more hip-hop there's still a swathe of people listening to people singing about sitting on the back of a pick-up truck. Things don't change so fast."

Humble and self-deprecating to the last, there's no shifting that Mr Nice Guy reputation.

And if Rick's phenomenal recent success is anything to go by, his fans, even in this country, are Never Gonna Give him up.

*Rick Astley will perform at Camp Bestival at Lulworth Castle, Dorset, on Friday, July 27. See campbestival.net for tickets and more information.