Billy Corgan
Billy Corgan
William Patrick "Billy" Corgan Jr. is an American musician, songwriter, producer, television writer, poet, and professional wrestling promoter best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois, in 1987, the band quickly gained steam with the addition of bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The band's direction has largely been driven by Corgan through his confessional lyrics, grandiose production values, and virtuosic musical...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth17 March 1967
CityElk Grove Village, IL
CountryUnited States of America
I was playing heavy metal when I was 18. I had to evolve out of that into an alternative consciousness about what it meant to change the way I played guitar, and the kind of songs, and the subject matter, and singing about child abuse, and all this stuff. I had to come from somewhere, and I had to take chances to do that.
You have to be willing to deal with the ups and downs of the music, the ups and downs of the audience.
Smashing Pumpkins has never been a band about hit songs.
If there was a simple ethic for the band, it was that we want to be able to do whatever we want to do.
The Smashing Pumpkins was never meant to be a small band. It was going to either be a big band, or a no band.
Actually, I was having dinner with Michael [Stipe, of R.E.M.] when our second album went platinum, which up until that point was the highest success we'd ever had. And he turned to me during dinner and said, 'Welcome to the deep waters, kid.' I'll never forget that.
For a 6-foot-3 guy with no hair and a whiny voice, I've done all right.
It's wonderful to read interviews by old blues guys - they talk about all their influences, they talk about who taught them how to play, and who they saw, and how they were determined to play that way.
To re-embrace what I once loved about music has been a warming process for me, because it's a good, earned feeling now.
The things I'm guided to do are really strange to me.
The desire to hit a big home run is dominating the music business.
Rock in the mainstream culture has lost a lot of its mojo.
People think I take some sort of masochistic pleasure out of putting out music that's gonna be unpopular.
It makes me crazy to think that somebody might attack my city or any other city.