Famously cantankerous rocker Neil Young has made headlines throughout the week with regard to his tenuous involvement in the 2025 edition of England’s massive Glastonbury Festival. So far, the festival has only officially confirmed one artist on the 2025 lineup, Rod Stewart.
On Wednesday, January 1st, Young took to his Neil Young Archives website to announce that he and his new backing band, The Chrome Hearts, had been booked to play Glastonbury but that they were pulling out after hearing that the festival had partnered with the British Broadcasting Company (BBC).
“The Chrome Hearts and I were looking forward to playing Glastonbury, one of my all time favorite outdoor gigs,” Young wrote in the statement which has since been deleted. “We were told that BBC was now a partner in Glastonbury and wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in. it seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way i remember it being. … We will not be playing Glastonbury on this tour because it is a corporate turn – off, and not for me like it used to be.”
As CNN reported, “Young did not elaborate on what he claimed the festival had wanted him and his band to do during their set that caused him to pull out of performing. The BBC livestreams portions of the festival through its days-long run.” Of note, the BBC, along with The Guardian, has been a major sponsor of Glastonbury since the festival returned from a one-year hiatus in 1997. In addition to broadcasting various live performances from the festival, the BBC has hosted an “Introducing” stage in the grounds’ “The Park” area showcasing rising acts. The broadcaster in 2017 renewed its exclusive national rights to air Glastonbury.
On Friday, January 3rd, in a new note posted to his Neil Young Archives, Young changed his mind about pulling out of Glastonbury 2025. “Due to an error in the information received, I had decided to not play the Glastonbury festival, which I always have loved,” the note reads. “Happily, the festival is now back on our itinerary and we look forward to playing! Hope to see you there!”
Neil Young last performed at Glastonbury in 2009 as a headlining act on the festival’s famed Pyramid stage. As The Guardian noted, “Young was also booked to play Glastonbury in 1997, but pulled out after cutting his finger while making a ham sandwich just before the start of his European tour, saying at the time: ‘I’d have eaten the thing in one piece if I’d known that cutting it in half would jeopardise the tour. It’s macaroni and cheese from now on.'”
The Chrome Hearts, the new-look outfit he debuted at 2024’s Farm Aid, features organist Spooner Oldham (Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section), guitarist Micah Nelson (who toured with Young in Crazy Horse last year and performs his own shows at Particle Kid), and two members of throwback Young backing band Promise of the Real, bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony LoGerfo. Young formed the band after canceling the remainder of a scheduled 2024 tour with Crazy Horse due to illness.
Tickets for the 2025 edition of Glastobury, set to take place from Wednesday, June 25th through Sunday, June 29th, quickly sold out when they went on sale back in November 2024. The festival typically announces a wave of high-profile acts in March and continues adding to the lineup through June.
Below, watch a 30-minute chunk of the 2009 Neil Young Glastonbury Festival set.
Neil Young – Glastonbury 2009
[Video: 500Bootlegs]