3 of the Wildest April Fools’ Day Pranks Ever Pulled in the Music World

If musicians are good at anything, it’s raising a little chaos. They have so many eyes on them and such pressure to deliver that no one can blame them for wanting to keep things lighthearted from time to time. On April Fool’s Day, revisit three of the wildest pranks ever pulled by the music world.

Videos by American Songwriter

Justin Bieber’s Uno-Reverse on TMZ

Justin Bieber has made his disdain for TMZ known more than once over the years. As a child star, the pop prince hasn’t gotten much privacy. He decided to shift the power from the media outlet to himself in 2013, via a tweet.

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The tweet saw Bieber claims to be taking phone calls from fans. “As promised taking all fan phone calls TODAY at (888) 847 9869,” he wrote. “Talk to u soon!” While posting something like that on April 1 should have raised some red flags, Bieber’s purpose didn’t require anyone to actually think they were going to talk to him; it only required them to dial the number to see what it was in actuality. Bieber got his revenge after the number was revealed to be a TMZ tipline, which was unsurprisingly overrun by fans of the pop singer.

Hanson’s Slipknot Cover Album

Everyone knows Hanson for their blithe pop hit, “MMMBop.” No one would be gullible enough to believe this trio was leaving the pop world behind for Nu Metal, right? Well, the band did get one over on a few listeners back in 2011 when they announced they were going to record an entire album’s worth of Slipknot covers. The band doubled down on the claim by releasing an acoustic cover of a Slipknot song.

“This project has been in the works for some time,” guitarist Isaac Hanson “revealed” at the time. “When we saw there was a leaked video, we thought we should at least put up something that more accurately represents the project. It’s still an early version, but we’re excited about it.”

Rick Rolling

The ultimate music prank happens not just on April Fool’s Day, but really whenever the mood strikes someone. Rickrolling—the joke of baiting and switching someone with a video only to reveal it’s Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song, “Never Gonna Give You Up” — has been going on for decades. Perhaps it’s a little passé at this point, but it remains slightly funny, even if for old time’s sake.

“It’s a bit strange to have videos of when you were a young guy out on the internet,” Astley once said. “It makes me laugh — I’m sure it annoys a lot of other people. It’s a bit spooky. It’s just one of those odd things when something gets picked up, and people run with it. That’s what’s brilliant about the internet.”

(Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue )