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
Every year that goes by, I lose that much more motivation to play rock.
I never seemed to fit in. But it made me try to strive for things ten times harder.
My view of the world is always tempered by the fact that there are people who are less fortunate than I am.
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.
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.
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.
I met Scott Stapp when the band was first coming up, great guy. I haven't seen him for years, but a great guy.
The reason I don't play any of the old songs is because I really honor my old band, and I think that those songs are best served within the context of that band.
Beware of those angels with their wings glued on.
It's about the girlfriend who left me last year. I tried to put all my anger in those words, even though I'm just as much to blame for the break-up. 'Soma' is based on the idea that a love relationship is almost the same as opium: it slowly puts you to sleep, it soothes you, and gives you the illusion of sureness and security. Very deceivable.
My step-mom would tell me that she would get complaints from adults that I stared too much at them.
It's what the mainstream does - they absorb things and they blunt the power of it. And so the next generation and the next generation has to become more shocking and more provocative in order to get any rise out of anybody.