Categories: Entertainment

Neil Young’s Glastonbury Snub Is Trademark Neil Young

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Neil Young has a reputation for being a bit ornery. The Canadian born songwriter has a stubborn streak a mile-long, extending from his Buffalo Springfield days – he was known to drive around Los Angeles in a hearse – onwards. Once splitting from Stephen Stills with the words “go eat a peach” the songwriter remains an inscrutable beast, easy to appreciate yet sometimes difficult to love. His latest missive – a broadside against Glastonbury, and a rejection of their invitation to perform – sits somewhere near the peak of his Everest-like construction of obstinacy.

In a note on Neil Young Archives, the songwriter explained that he – and the Chrome Hearts – had been recruited for Glastonbury festival this summer, but had rebuffed the event’s manoeuvres. The reason? Well, astonishingly, Neil Young thinks Glastonbury – the same not-for-profile, advertising-free festival that donates millions to great causes every summer – has gone commercial.

“The Chrome Hearts and I were looking forward to playing Glastonbury, one of my all time favorite outdoor gigs,” Young wrote. “We were told that BBCwas 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.”

It’s a bizarre treatise, one that has quickly one viral. It’s a gift to Right Wing commentators, many of whom now style themselves as anti-authoritarians and want to pick up on Neil Young’s counter cultural pathways. Something about it doesn’t connect, however – after all, Neil Young played Glastonbury in 2009, long after the festival’s BBC tie-in started.

In fact, the only issue with that set was the broadcaster requiring some aspects of the performance to live online – something the BBC does with each of the televised sets from Worthy Farm. In the end, Neil Young begrudgingly allowed just one song to sit on YouTube, far less than some other high-profile sets.

Does Neil Young simply have a grudge with YouTube? Looking through his channel on the platformit seems to be primarily archive material. It wouldn’t surprise us if the plaid shirt clad rocker did indeed have some form of grudge with the platform – Neil Young’s pointed views on digital music and the streaming era saw him break away from the pack, his grievances pushing him to launch his own alternative, labelling the sound quality of his new-found rivals as “the worst in history”.

Glastonbury have not commented on the statement, transforming this row into something entirely one-sided. As many have noted, Neil Young’s anti-commercial stance isn’t entirely consistent – he’s accepted high paying private gigs in the pastincluding a 2023 performance for Dani Reiss (the CEO of fashion brand Canada Goose, much criticised by animal right’s groups) at a tiny Toronto club.

But then, consistency is hardly something Neil Young is known for. Famously heading to “the ditch” after locating mainstream success with his ‘Harvest’ album, the musician’s inscrutable twists and turns exasperated his 80s label boss David Geffen to the point of legal action. We doubt it will come to that, however – genial Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis is much more likely to (as per Neil Young’s immortal suggestion) eat a peach.

Glastonbury Festival 2025 kicks off on June 25th.

Brandon Brittingham

Brandon Brittingham is a Journalist at Flaunt Weekly.

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