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 think rock & roll has prepared me for a lot of flexibility.
I think God is the most unexplored territory in rock and roll music.
Most people are living lives of sort of survival. And constantly posing an existential crisis, either through fantasy or oblivion, really has been pretty much explored in rock and roll. At least in the western version of rock n' roll.
Rock and Roll is still asking people like me to live up to the old guard's concept of what success is but it doesn't mean anything.
Where is this great love for rock and roll that existed for 50 or 60 years?
The Pumpkins love rock-and-roll, we absolutely love it, but we also think it's a flatulent, ego-serving kiddie playground. You can have your cake and eat it too.
Well, all rock and roll is based in artifice.
I have a saying, which is, 'Crazy is good for business.' I think rock and roll really is about being a bit crazy.
Are you all ready to have a rockin' mashed potato time?
Well, what we usually do is in every city we got to, we hire a fifteen-year-old boy and we turn it up until he starts to make a funny face, then we turn it up about ten notches higher than that.
When alternative music - which is supposed to be the standard-bearer of where white rock is headed - becomes either too cute or too manufactured, that's just really not good.
I'm not going to die glamorously. I'll probably be eating a Twinkie, take a bite, and fall over.
I'm by nature kind of a glum person, but I'm not a sad pathetic
People act like Nirvana invented grunge; they just took it and personified it.