While billionaire businessmen are often thought of as rich, stuffy guys in suits, Richard Branson is anything but. Branson got his big break producing music, and he continues to live a rock and roll lifestyle to this day. Unsurprisingly, the blond British billionaire has had many fascinating run-ins with music stars over the years, including the time Keith Richards taught him a valuable life lesson. However, he has also landed in plenty of controversies, mainly due to skipping out on taxes. From his business failures to the horror movie that he owes his career to, let's take a look at the untold truth of Richard Branson.
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00:00Like many billionaires, Richard Branson has plenty of quirks, and his wealth has allowed
00:05him to create quite the lifestyle.
00:07But his is not the story of a typical CEO.
00:10From the sex and the drugs to, yes, the rock and roll, here are the wildest stories that
00:14have come out about Richard Branson.
00:17You know that spooky piano song from The Exorcist?
00:20It wasn't just made for the movie.
00:22It's a song by musician Mike Oldfield called Tubular Bells, and it was Virgin Records'
00:27first big hit.
00:28In fact, it's what got Branson to go from selling records to making them as well.
00:33According to an interview with The Guardian, Branson heard a demo tape of the track and
00:37called it, quote, "...some of the most beautiful music I'd ever heard."
00:40The then-small-time music merchant tried to get more established record labels interested
00:44in the song, but they all wanted to make changes to the sound.
00:48So Branson helped release it himself, as the first release from Virgin Records.
00:52The song's appearance in the 1973 horror classic brought it worldwide acclaim, holding onto
00:58the British music charts for an incredible 286 weeks.
01:02It was a massive hit that changed the lives of both Branson and Oldfield, helping to make
01:06Virgin Records a real player in the music business.
01:09The success of the track stuck with Branson, who later said he named one of the Virgin
01:13aircrafts Tubular Bell in honor of the song.
01:17Since he credits the song with jumpstarting the whole Virgin enterprise, he's naturally
01:20quite fond of it, as he later told The Guardian,
01:23"...I'd listened to it so much, my wife won't let me play it anymore."
01:27Strangely enough, it reportedly took ten years after the release of The Exorcist for Oldfield
01:32to watch the movie that helped make it such a hit.
01:35Maybe he didn't want to ruin his appetite for pea soup.
01:39Branson married American architecture student Kristen Tomasi in 1972.
01:44He was 21 and she was 20.
01:46Their wedding got an announcement in The New York Times, but the marriage didn't last.
01:51In keeping with the liberated trends of the time, the couple tried the swinging lifestyle
01:55with an open marriage.
01:57They entered into a partner-swapping situation with soft machine musician Kevin Ayers and
02:01his wife.
02:03Branson didn't do very well with Ayers' wife, but Kristen and Kevin hooked up and had a
02:06child together.
02:08Branson later said in retrospect he and his first wife simply had been too young for their
02:12marriage to last.
02:14Branson has been open about his sex life arguably too open, writing about his late-in-life circumcision
02:20and other TMI details in a book called Losing My Virginity.
02:24He has claimed in an interview with GQ that he's a member of the so-called Mile High Club
02:28— just one detail among many others that we really never needed to know.
02:33Being inducted into that club doesn't sound like the most luxurious experience, either.
02:38As the business mogul put it,
02:40"...the problem with plane bathrooms generally is that they are very small and the acrobatics
02:44can't take too long because there's no room and people start banging on the door."
02:49Branson met his second wife, Joan Templeman, in 1976, when she was reportedly still married
02:54to musician Ronnie Leahy, the keyboard player for Nazareth.
02:58Despite that, Richard and Joan have been together for over 40 years now, and had two kids together
03:03before they finally tied the knot in 1989.
03:07Branson is most famous around the world for Virgin Records and Virgin Airlines, but he
03:11sold the record label in 1992, reportedly to keep the airline business' lights on, later
03:17claiming to have shed tears over the decision.
03:19He is also known for Virgin Mobile, Virgin Radio, and Virgin Trains in the United Kingdom,
03:24among other businesses in Virgin Group.
03:26But not all of his businesses have been successful.
03:29Virgin brands that have come and gone include Virgin Clothing, Virgin Vodka, Virgin Jeans,
03:34Virgin Cosmetics, Virgin Cars, Virgin Cola, and even Virgin Brides — a name which seems
03:40like a little much.
03:42Despite these and other failures, the brand has forged on.
03:45It seems that for Richard Branson, Screw It, Let's Do It is more than just a book title
03:49— it's a way of life.
03:52When Branson's business ventures first took off in England in the 1970s, he became known
03:56for excessive partying, and even learned some lifestyle tips from real-life rock stars.
04:02Branson claimed in an interview with Piers Morgan that Rolling Stones guitarist and future
04:06Virgin Records label-mate Keith Richards is the one who showed him the finer points of
04:10rolling a joint.
04:12Branson says he's also used cocaine and ecstasy.
04:15The entrepreneur claimed to have kicked back and done drugs with his son during a gap year
04:19vacation, recalling to GQ,
04:21"...we learned to surf and had some nights where we laughed our heads off for eight hours."
04:26Branson also helped his son, Sam, make a documentary about drugs in 2012 called Breaking the Taboo,
04:32which covered what Branson called, quote, the failed war on drugs.
04:36In 2015, Branson further called for decriminalizing use and possession of illicit substances,
04:42instead advocating for them to be treated as a public health issue, not a legal one.
04:47Branson doesn't think drugs are for everyone, of course.
04:49He reportedly helped Culture Club lead singer Boy George to kick a drug habit in 2017.
04:55The band was once a big seller for Virgin Records.
04:58The singer told Piers Morgan that at his lowest point, Branson let the singer live in one
05:02of his houses, away from publicity, so he could use the stability of the arrangement
05:06to try and beat his addictions.
05:09While the Virgin brand name is prolific, it's not because Richard Branson keeps coming up
05:13with ideas.
05:14Instead, it's been reported that he simply licenses the name to other companies, including
05:20Virgin Mobile, Virgin Music, and Virgin Radio, among many others.
05:24The setup allows Branson to rake in lucrative licensing fees while never being on the hook
05:28for investment, all while spreading his brand name further and further around the world.
05:34I learned early on that if you can run one company, you can really run any company."
05:41The Sex Pistols kept on getting kicked off record labels during the punk rock heyday
05:45of the mid-1970s, but the band got a break and a powerful ally when Branson signed them
05:50to Virgin Records, effectively co-signing their every controversial move.
05:55It wasn't just the song, God Save the Queen, that caused outrage for the band during the
05:59peak of their popularity.
06:00The title of their album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, got Branson and the
06:05band into a bit of trouble, with bollocks being considered something of a dirty word
06:10in the U.K.
06:11When one of his record stores displayed the album title, the police went after him, arguing
06:15that the display had violated old indecency and vagrancy laws from the 1800s.
06:20The reason you're here is because it's the Sex Pistols.
06:23If it wasn't the Sex Pistols, there'd be no interest in this boat tonight."
06:27So Branson faced indecency charges.
06:30He prevailed in the case when he and his lawyer, John Mortimer, found a cunning linguist
06:33who argued that the word had a long history of not being profane.
06:38Branson said the linguistics professor, who was also a priest, told him that the word
06:42bollocks didn't have anything to do with male human anatomy, but was rather a nickname for
06:46priests in the 18th century.
06:48We're sure that's how the band intended it.
06:51The expert testified in court, wearing his religious garb, and helped Branson prevail,
06:55with the judge reluctantly finding them not guilty.
06:58It can be argued that scoffing at the law like this was a pretty punk move, but today
07:03Virgin Money makes Sex Pistols credit cards.
07:06If punk wasn't dead already, that probably killed it.
07:09What bollocks.
07:11Richard Branson was born on July 18, 1950, and was a high school dropout before gaining
07:17success with a magazine called Student.
07:19His penchant for hustling reportedly led the headmaster at his old school to predict that
07:23Branson would either go to jail or be a millionaire when he grew up.
07:28He did both.
07:29When Branson started the Virgin Company to sell records in stores and via mail order,
07:33he also conjured a shady scheme to avoid paying taxes.
07:37Back then, record stores in England had to pay a 33 percent tax on records sold domestically,
07:43but this didn't apply to overseas sales.
07:45As he admitted in his 2011 book Losing My Virginity, his practice was to get paperwork
07:50stamped as if he was going to ship the records overseas, but then sell them in the country
07:54and save on the taxes.
07:56As he put it in the book, it seemed like the perfect way out.
08:00But he was a little too slick for his own good, and customs officials eventually caught
08:04up with him.
08:05Branson only spent a night in jail for the scheme, but his parents had to mortgage their
08:09house to get him out and keep his record business afloat.
08:12He also owed £70,000 in customs funds.
08:16After this, did he change his ways and start following the law?
08:19Not really.
08:20He just got better at getting around it.
08:24After Branson ended up with a night in the slammer over taxes, you'd think he might've
08:28been encouraged to change his ways for the better.
08:30Instead, he's reportedly found perfectly legal ways to avoid paying his fair share.
08:35It's been reported that many of Branson's businesses are registered in far-flung jurisdictions
08:40that work as tax shelters, including some holding companies registered in the Virgin
08:44Islands, fittingly enough.
08:46In addition, Branson spends much of his time at Necker Island, the British Virgin Islands
08:50property that he owns, where there are no taxes, and he restricts his time in the UK
08:55so he can pay fewer taxes there.
08:58Despite his obscure, complex, but reportedly legal practices, the billionaire has had the
09:03gall to criticize other companies for avoiding their own taxes in the UK.
09:07Of course, Branson denied his move to Necker Island had anything to do with taxes, claiming
09:12in his blog that he's living in the tax haven for health and lifestyle reasons.
09:17Branson's flouting of tax law hasn't gone unnoticed.
09:20In August 2016, one British politician, John McDonnell, even called for Branson to lose
09:25his knighthood, which he got in 1999.
09:28As the Member of Parliament put it,
09:29"...it should be a simple choice for the mega-rich.
09:32Run off to tax exile if you want, but you leave your titles and your honors behind you
09:36when you go."
09:38In August 2016, Richard Branson was riding around Virgin Gorda, one of the British Virgin
09:43Islands, enjoying one of his favorite activities, bicycling with his two children.
09:48Unfortunately, he was enjoying it a little too much.
09:51While reportedly biking down a hill in the dark at high speed, his bicycle made contact
09:56with a large speed bump, a collision which sent him flying over his handlebars.
10:00He later said he thinks his helmet saved his life, and judging from a picture of his face
10:05he shared while recovering, he's probably right.
10:08Of course, just like anyone who becomes a millionaire, he had a little bit of luck to
10:11help him along the way.
10:13While he did faceplant all over the concrete road, at least he didn't go the way of his
10:17bicycle, which apparently disappeared over a nearby cliff.
10:21For someone who's made much publicity out of his adventurous exploits, it would've been
10:26a pretty awkward end.