Glastonbury 2025: Watch Neil Young perform killer ‘Rockin in the Free World’
Neil Young cements his legend status with ease as he soars through ‘Rockin in the Free World’ on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival.
The steady drums, warm guitars, and throaty singing combine to make an undeniably spectacular offering from Young. He sang like it was 1989, and the single had just been released with his seventeenth studio album, Freedom.
Young certainly rocks the stage, but it’s a space he knows doesn’t come for free. Friend and fellow musician Bruce Springsteen has been using his recent tour to consistently deliver an anti-Trump monologue which reacts against Trumpism and brands it a new form of dictatorship. Young backed Springsteen online, writing, “I am not scared of you.”
This single fits the debate Young has weighed in on; between 2015 and 2020, Donald Trump repeatedly played ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ at his rallies, much to the musician’s chagrin. Trump didn’t see the irony of using this song to promote his presidential campaigns, given that it is a powerful indictment of homelessness, drug addiction and child poverty in the United States, directed at former President George H W Bush.
Young’s 2025 journey to Glastonbury was a tumultuous one, to say the least. After the Festival announced Young’s headline slot, he took to his website to claim he would not. The Canadian then accused Glastonbury of being “under corporate control” and described the event as a “corporate turn-off”.
In another U-turn, two days later, Young backtracked and confirmed he would play Worthy Farm, writing, “Due to an error in the information received, I had decided to not play the Glastonbury festival, which I always have loved.” The vast audience seems delighted he changed his mind.
Friday night at Glastonbury saw The 1975 headline the Pyramid Stage and Loyle Carner headline the Other Stage. On Sunday, Olivia Rodrigo will close the weekend. All the while, Far Out are on the ground at the festival giving you all the best coverage of what happens, when it happens.
Watch Neil Young perform ‘Rockin in the Free World’ below.
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