Every artist that turned down Glastonbury as Neil Young pulls out over 'corporate control'

As the festival world eagerly awaits the coveted Glastonbury 2025 lineup - one of it's first artists has already pulled out.

The Somerset festival welcomes over 200,000 people each year to Worthy Farm, as some of the world's biggest artists grace some of its 120 stages, including the iconic Pyramid Stage.

2024 saw Dua Lipa, SZA, and Coldplay secure the headline slots, with Arctic Monkeys, Elton John, and Guns N' Roses playing the year before.

Early predictions for 2025 include Sam Fender, Olivia Rodrigo, and Charli XCX among those in the bigger slots. Rod Stewart is the first confirmed artist, taking the teatime legends slot.

2025 will be the last Glastonbury Festival before it takes a fallow year, which gives the grounds of the farm chance to recover. While this usually happens every five years, the last official one was in 2018, as Covid disrupted the festival a couple of years later.

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But there's now concern that this year's lineup could take a beating, with one huge rocker confirming that he'd been on the bill, but now won't be playing due to disagreements with the BBC's involvement in Glastonbury.

Neil Young, known for hits including 'Heart of Gold' and 'Rockin' in the Free World' has announced that he was "looking forward to playing Glastonbury, one of my all time favourite outdoor gigs" alongside his band, but now believes the festival is under "corporate control" by the broadcaster, who livestream performances each year.

"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," said Young, who headlined Glastonbury in 2009.

"It seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being."

He added: "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."

But he's not the only artist who refuses to play the festival. Over the years, plenty of other artists have either pulled out or never been interested when asked.

Here's who you're unlikely to see on the stage there again...

Queen

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Queen's Brian May is a huge wildlife advocate, and has openly admitted that the iconic band would never play the festival due to its ethics.

"We won't [play Glastonbury] and there are a lot of reasons for that," May told BBC Radio 2's Zoe Ball back in 2019.

"One of them is that Michael Eavis has frequently insulted me, and I don’t particularly enjoy that. What bothers me more is that he’s in favour of the badger cull, which I regard as a tragedy and an unnecessary crime against wildlife."

However, it wouldn't appear that the Eavis family are too keen to get the band involved either, with founder, Michael Eavis, reportedly saying Queen were "were 'not quite our thing", according to NME.

The Black Keys

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As Glastonbury markets itself as anti-corporate, its fees for artists are reportedly rather low in comparison to other festivals - something which a number of performers have admitted has stopped them playing.

One of those bands is American group, The Black Keys, who did play Glastonbury in 2014, but will likely never come back over pay disputes.

"We got an offer from Glastonbury that was so insulting, we’re never going to play the festival again", drummer Patrick Carney told NME in 2023.

"We know it’s a big deal for people in the UK but the weight of what the festival is doesn’t translate to most Americans. We have no interest in playing it."

Oasis

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Oasis played Glastonbury in 1995 and 2004, however, the chances of them gracing the Pyramid stage now are rather slim.

The Gallagher brothers announced they'd be reuniting for a tour after 17 years in summer 2025, however, the chance to headline Glastonbury was shunned from their list of dates.

In fact, Noel Gallagher told The Sun: Don’t get me wrong, I f****** love Glastonbury. I think it’s one of the most important things. In fact it’s probably the best f****** thing about Britain apart from the Premier League.

'It’s getting a bit woke now, that place, and a bit kind of preachy and a bit virtue-signalling.

'I don’t like it in music — little f****** idiots waving flags around and making political statements and bands taking the stage and saying: "Hey guys, isn’t war terrible, yeah? Let’s all boo war. F*** the Tories man," and all that."

Nadine Shah

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Just like The Black Keys, Nadine Shah has opened up about her problems with failing to secure a good deal to play the festival.

After rumours began swirling that the musician would appear in 2024, she took to X/Twitter to confirm the real reason she'd decided not to perform.

She wrote: "The rumours are untrue. I am NOT playing @glastonbury I would have liked to but I wasn’t offered a televised stage so I declined. It’s too expensive a hit for me to take otherwise.

"It’s just a reality that playing live is super expensive and if you can justify the costs (like being on telly and having a wider reach) then sometimes you take the hit. Otherwise no, we’ve all bills to pay."

Duran Duran

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But, it's not just the money that's got stars riled up. Bands like Duran Duran, who have never played Glastonbury despite being successful, have always turned it down as they were never offered a good enough slot.

"3pm in the Disco Tent isn’t really where we see ourselves. A long time ago I vowed I would never set foot in Glastonbury unless it was on the Pyramid Stage at a decent hour of the night," singer, Simon Le Bon, toldThe Telegraph in 2023.

"I’ve been asked to camp, to glamp and invited to fly in and out by helicopter. I’ve always refused on principle."

The Rolling Stones

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Similarly to Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, who took to the Pyramid Stage in 2013, also have concerns about the BBC's influence over Glastonbury.

The band reportedly got into a heated negotiation about how much of their performance would be broadcast, as they believed they were being paid simply to perform, and not also for the right to show it on TV.

A source close to the band told The Standard: "The band will decide how much will be shown tomorrow afternoon.

"They signed up to perform on stage — not to appear on a television programme. Glasto is not a TV show.”

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