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
The deeper I get into my life as a musician, I'm discovering that it becomes less and less about other people, and more about what I want to do. And that's a good place to be.
Great music completely obliterates any conceptions of genre.
The music is all we care about -- so if that's bad, then we're bad.
I'll come in with a string of riffs and direct the musical ideas. But you still need a band and their input to make the ideas come alive. You can't underestimate band chemistry.
The point is to let the music be itself. If it doesn't mean anything to you, then it's bullsh*t.
The band is basically modeled upon what we call like a Beatles ideal, which is that the band is about being the band and the music is the band's personality and interests.
I think I'm an artistic radical, and I think I'll be recognized as one. I'm a really good musician and a songwriter, but I think my real legacy will be as a radical.
When you actually like each other, it translates to the music.
I just don't want to live in the past. I'm really disappointed by so many people of my generation who - in order to promote their new work, they have to constantly lean on their past. I don't want to be that type of artist... I see a lot of people out here doing really marginal music.
I was fantasising about my own death, I started thinking what my funeral would be like and what music would be played, I was at that level of insanity.
A lot of great music got easily dismissed because the baby boomers threw their weight around and we had to listen to Motown 'til our ears bled,
I met with a lot of resistance when I wanted our newest album to be a double CD. Many people thought I was going to ruin the band by doing it.
I don't mean this in any sort of trite way, ... but the music has really been the thing that has healed us over and over again. It is the thing that has held us together and taught us about each other.
Are you all ready to have a rockin' mashed potato time?