Headlining Glastonbury is an honor reserved for only the biggest acts in the world, and in 1989 Suzanne Vega made history and joined that exclusive high table – but the circumstances surrounding the set were less-than-ideal.
The alternative folk and fingerstyle acoustic guitar icon became the first-ever female artist to top the bill that year, but she has now revealed that British police executives had advised her not to play the show after she received a death threat prior to the event.
“Scotland Yard sat me down and said, ‘We advise you not to do the show.’ I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” she tells British newspaper The i.
“A man from Scotland Yard took his [vest] and said, ‘You’ll have to wear this.’ He was twice my size, so I had to gaffer tape myself into this giant bulletproof vest, and then put a denim jacket over it,” she continues. “It felt like every song was 20 minutes long. It was not comfortable. We were all nervous.”
The death threats, it turns out, were centered around the band’s touring bass player, who had a stalker. The latest threat, which arrived on the day of the soon-to-be-historic performance, also took aim at Vega. The Tom’s Diner singer took the threats seriously, but she wouldn’t let it derail the biggest show of her career.
Vega had risen from out of the Greenwich Village neo-folk scene of the early 1980s. The two albums she had released prior to her Glastonbury spot, 1985's self-titled debut and Solitude Standing, which arrived two years later, cemented her acclaimed alt-folk sound, and her track Luka was the subject of high praise from Prince.
Eight other acts with female stars, from Billie Eilish to Skunk Anansie, have since headlined the festival's Pyramid Stage. The 2024 edition of the long-running event was the first time two female artists – Dua Lipa and SZA – have headlined the festival in the same year. Vega helped pave the way for them in the face of adversity.
“I’m proud of being the first woman to headline,” she reflects. “There’s nothing diminished about that.”
Unfortunately, death threats have mired music industry stories. Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal says he once received death threats from Guns N’ Roses fans following a disastrous Welcome to the Jungle solo which he had performed while stuck inside a Stormtrooper helmet.
