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