Neil Young pulls out of Glastonbury and takes aim at BBC - 'It's a corporate turn-off'

Glastonbury Festival's reported headliner has pulled out after branding the iconic festival a 'corporate turn-off' and taking issue with the BBC's involvement

Glastonbury's reported headliner, Neil Young, has pulled out of the festival as he branded the festival a 'corporate turn-off'.

The 79-year-old and his live band, The Chrome Hearts, were said to be performing at the 2025 festival held on Worthy Farm in Somerset. He originally performed on the Pyramid Stage 16 years ago but has decided not to return to the Glasto stage and explained his reasoning on Neil Young Archives.

In a statement on Neil Young Archives, he wrote: "We were told the BBC was now a partner in Glastonbury and wanted us to do a lot for things 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.

"Hope to see you at one of the other venues on the tour.” The Harvest Moon musician signed off the statement with his name and added, "Be well". It is unclear what the BBC wanted them to do. A source previously claimed Neil and his band were "firming up plans" for European tour dates as well as Glastonbury Festival.

"Glastonbury appears to be leaning back into its roots of rock, and if they can secure Neil it would be an amazing addition to what is already shaping up to be an incredible line up," the source claimed to The Sun at the time. The Mirror have reached out to the BBC for comment.

Neil previously disclosed that he was reworking plans for a European tour — and wanted to scrap the indoor plans for ­outdoor gigs. Writing on his website, Neil stated: "Indoor concerts could be too risky for health reasons and we don’t want to have to cancel any concerts for health reasons next ­summer."

Eagled-eyed fans also noticed that his website was updated to include a picture of a ticket from 2009's Glastonbury. Sharing a screenshot of Neil's website update on Twitter (X) last month, The Glasto Thing account wrote: "There's a bit of a (for me) too good to be true rumour floating about. Just to throw a little petrol on the flames, Neil Young has put his Glastonbury 2009 set up on his website. Add that to him saying he's doing dates in Europe next year, plus a few other little bits and..."

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