'They weren't at all greedy': Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis reveals Rolling Stones won't be getting huge fee to headline this year's festival
By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 01:53, 25 June 2013 | UPDATED: 10:34, 25 June 2013
The founder of Glastonbury has refuted claims that money was behind the Rolling Stones' decision to headline the festival this year.
Michael Eavis said the band was ‘not at all greedy’ and that it may have been thanks to his late wife asking Mick Jagger at an awards ceremony.
The Rolling Stones will be headlining the Pyramid Stage on Saturday at the famous festival.
It was the mud: Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis denied rumours that it was money that enticed the Rolling Stones to headline this year's festival
Mr Eavis was asked why the veteran rockers finally agreed to perform at 'Glasto' and strongly denied that it was thanks to the fee.
‘It's supposed to be a big money thing. But in fact they weren't at all greedy,’ He told the Radio Times.
He said: ‘There's always a wishlist, and only the best bands are on it - about 20 of 'em. And we've been ticking 'em off and ticking 'em off. The Rolling Stones were the only ones that were left.’
He added: ‘We ask every year! I saw Mick Jagger at the Q Awards years and years ago, and he was standing halfway up the stairs - perched on a ladder there on his own - and (Eavis's late wife) Jean said, “I'm gonna ask him to play.”
'I said, “Oh no, no, you can't do that, you can't talk to these people.” And she went straight in there - 'Why haven't you done Glastonbury?' And he said he'd never been asked. Well, he was asked then.
‘Jean asked him definitely point blank right there! She went straight up, handbag in her arms!’
Rock legends: Mick Jagger, center, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, left, and Charlie Watts, right, will take the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival on Saturday
Eavis is said to have revealed that the band's set will include a metal phoenix, thought to have hydraulic wings, affixed atop the Pyramid Stage.
Meanwhile, Sir Mick is said to have been studying DVDs of every main stage performance for the past four years.
He told the magazine: ‘Festivals are great to be at, but not always the easiest things to play.
'You've got to try and make sure that first number really cooks... That first number's got to be something you're super-confident with. It's no good doing a slightly unknown number that the audience isn't gonna deal with.’
The frontman, who picks new acts to duet with, told the magazine: ‘I like to be a bit more open-minded about things.
'I think Keith sees the Rolling Stones as very much a conservative rock band. As he's got older his ideas have become more conservative.’
Big party: Headliners for Glastonbury 2013 include Arctic Monkeys, Mumford and Sons and Rita Ora
Eavis, who wants to continue running the festival for another seven years, said it was a good thing that that the event had taken a break last year due to supplies being stretched by the Olympics.
‘Three inches of rain that weekend! We would have had it - we would have gone completely bust. You can't run this show with three inches of rain. We were so lucky,’ he said.
Eavis, who delayed construction on one area of the site because of nesting birds and has boasted that this year's toilets ‘won't smell’, said: ‘We can go to two inches (of rain), but after that it's impossible.
'And we've got the Olympics to thank for that - because the year before should have been the year off. It must have been divine intervention.’
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