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
When I've tried to reinvent the wheel, I get bashed for not doing the familiar things.
My father was a guitar player, and I was raised with a super high standard of what good guitar playing was.
Music is supposed to be interwoven into the fabric of society; it is not supposed to be a plaything that is there to serve the population's titillation of the moment.
It's a simple formula for me now, I don't play any song I don't want to play.
In my particular instance, I came from a family that didn't have anything. Everything I earned in life I made. Myself. With songs that I wrote.
If you don't fit into this kind of like gossipy, trendy, Web-hit thingy, you're relegated to sort of second-class celebrity status.
What bothers me is when music becomes entertainment. Of course, music is supposed to be entertaining, but go back to any period of time - music had a cultural significance on different levels, whether it was folk music, it was the news of the village, or it had to do with the rites of passage.
I realize I'm a mirror.
I often have deer on my property and there's a fox and owls. You're not going to see that in the city.
People think I take some sort of masochistic pleasure out of putting out music that's gonna be unpopular.
Radiohead and Our Lady Peace are doing the seven layers of guitar, and I kind of jumped on that before anyone else did.
Rock in the mainstream culture has lost a lot of its mojo.
What most people do is try to find a comfortable persona that they're in alignment with and the public likes and appreciates them for.
Well, all rock and roll is based in artifice.