Editing Michael Eavis (section)

== Personal life ==
Eavis was born in [[Pilton, Somerset]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bandcstaffregister.co.uk/page3334.html |title=Michael Eavis |access-date=8 December 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210181714/http://www.bandcstaffregister.co.uk/page3334.html |archive-date=10 December 2015}}</ref> on 17 October 1935,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Michael Eavis News {{!}} Photos {{!}} Quotes {{!}} Video {{!}} Wiki - UPI.com |url=https://www.upi.com/topic/Michael_Eavis/ |access-date=25 June 2023 |website=UPI |language=en}}</ref> and grew up at Worthy Farm in the village. His father was a dairy farmer and also a [[Methodist]] [[local preacher]], and his mother a school teacher. Eavis was educated at [[Wells Cathedral School]], followed by the [[Thames Nautical Training College]] in [[Greenhithe, Kent]], after which he joined the [[Union-Castle Line]], part of the [[British Merchant Navy]], as a trainee [[midshipman]]. His plan was to spend twenty years at sea, and return with a pension to help subsidise the income from the family farm.

After his father died when Eavis was 19, he inherited the family farm of {{convert|150|acre|ha}} and 60 cows.<ref name="Smith">{{cite news|url= http://arts.guardian.co.uk/glastonbury2005/story/0,,1509864,00.html|title=Far-out man|last=Smith |first=David|work=The Guardian|date=19 June 2005|access-date=28 June 2008 | location=London|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140305225705/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/jun/19/popandrock.glastonbury2005|archive-date=5 March 2014}}</ref> He worked at Mendip Colliery at [[Nettlebridge]] or New Rock colliery at [[Stratton-on-the-Fosse]] on the [[Somerset Coalfield]] for a couple of years to help supplement the income from the farm.<ref name=benson>{{cite news|last1=Benson|first1=Richard|title='Why haven't you booked me for the Pyramid stage?': Michael Eavis answers famous festivalgoers' questions|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/22/michael-eavis-glastonbury-questions-jarvis-cocker-john-humphrys-kelis|access-date=23 June 2014|work=The Guardian|date=22 June 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Norbury|first1=Suzanne|title=Glastonbury Festival's Michael Eavis joins former coal miners in Radstock|url=http://www.somersetlive.co.uk/glastonbury-festival-s-michael-eavis-joins-former-coal-miners-in-radstock-pictures/story-29689606-detail/story.html|access-date=6 September 2016|work=Somerset Live|date=6 September 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160907154644/http://www.somersetlive.co.uk/glastonbury-festival-s-michael-eavis-joins-former-coal-miners-in-radstock-pictures/story-29689606-detail/story.html|archive-date=7 September 2016}}</ref>

Eavis and his first wife Ruth had three children, Juliet, Rebecca and Jane, but divorced in 1964.<ref name="Smith" /> He next married Jean Hayball, with whom he had a son, Patrick, and a daughter, [[Emily Eavis|Emily]]. Jean died of cancer in 1999, and Eavis has since married his third wife, Liz.<ref name="Smith" /> In common with his parents and second wife, Eavis remains a practising Methodist,<ref>{{cite news |last1=McGrath |first1=Nick |title=Michael Eavis: My family values |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/07/michael-eavis-glastonbury-festival-family-values |access-date=16 July 2018 |work=The Guardian|date=7 June 2013}}</ref> although he has also stated that he is "not really bothered" about the existence of God.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://thirdway.hymnsam.co.uk/editions/septemberoctober-2015/high-profile/down-on-jollity-farm.aspx |title=Down on Jollity Farm  |last=Turner |first=Steve |date=22 July 2015 |website=[[Third Way (magazine)|Third Way]]|access-date=11 July 2020}}</ref> He is a [[teetotalism|teetotaler]] and does not smoke.<ref name="Smith" />