Billy Corgan
William Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr. (born
March 17,
1967 in
Elk Grove Village, Illinois,
U.S.A.) is an American
vocalist,
lead guitarist, and
songwriter best known for his work in the
alternative rock band
The Smashing Pumpkins. In the 1990s The Smashing Pumpkins was one of alternative's biggest acts, known for their complex, layered style, and Corgan's distinctive vocals. The Pumpkins had a dense and layered guitar-heavy sound with elements of
gothic rock,
heavy metal,
power pop, and
psychedelic rock with
shoegazer-style
production.
As a result of a series of autobiographical journal entries (made available on Corgan's official
website), much has been revealed about his childhood. Corgan is the oldest son of William Corgan Sr. and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He has a younger half brother, Jesse, who is physically disabled (The Smashing Pumpkins' song "Spaceboy" was written for him) and another younger brother, Ricky, who is a painter. Corgan's parents divorced at an early age, and his father remarried soon after. His early years were spent with his grandparents, but most of his childhood was spent living with his father and stepmother in
Glendale Heights, Illinois. During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional
abuse by his stepmother. His father was a professional musician who would smoke large amounts of
marijuana daily.
It seems as though Corgan was deeply emotionally troubled for the greater portion of his childhood, mainly due to family abuse. His online entries, or "confessions" as he chooses to call them, portray himself as a boy yearning for the recognition and approval of his father, and escape from his stepmother.
Martha Lutz, Corgan's birth mother, had also been suffering from
mental illness. She was eventually committed to a mental institution for a brief period of time. Other anecdotes Corgan shares through his online journals include learning of a mysterious half-brother, wandering around the Chicagoland area as an aimless teenager, and a detailed account of his courtship with his first wife.
Corgan decided to start playing guitar when he went over a friend's house and saw his friend's
Flying V. At age 15, Corgan gave his savings to his father, in good faith that he would buy him a proper guitar. Ironically, his first guitar was a used
Gibson Les Paul, a guitar
James Iha was most sentimental towards.
Corgan Sr., an
R&B guitarist, steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to
Jeff Beck and
Jimi Hendrix; however, in a
Howard Stern interview, Billy Corgan claimed he was an
autodidactic guitarist. In this, Corgan was similar to contemporaries like
Kurt Cobain, who were mostly self taught and not mentored. Cobain, who wrote in his
Journals, said that he mostly learned to play guitar within a week of learning of the chord progression to
the Kingsmen's hit, "
Louie, Louie". When asked by
Robin Quivers if he could
read notes, Billy responded, "No. I play whatever I hear in my head". Corgan has also said that his father refused on-hand instruction because he was skeptical of his son's dedication.
When asked in a 1994
Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
"Eight years old, I put on the
Black Sabbath record, and my life is forever changed. It sounded so fucking heavy. It rattled the bones. I wanted that feeling. With
Bauhaus and
The Cure, it was the ability to create a mood and an atmosphere. The air gets heavier. With Jimi Hendrix, it was the ability to translate this other level of guitar.
Cheap Trick - it was a vocal influence. Although Tom Peterson once told me that
Rick Nielsen called us 'tuneless and nonmelodic'".[
1]
Corgan moved from Chicago to
St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band,
The Marked, named for the noticeable birthmarks of Billy and
Ron Roesing, the drummer. The band lasted for around nine months and disbanded, with Billy returning to Chicago to live with his father.
While working at a record store there, he met up with guitarist
James Iha through a friend. He then met bassist
D'Arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played. Soon after, The Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with only a
drum machine for percussion. During this period Billy perfected his effeminate style of vocal delivery, a trademark in all his works since. The band tried to book a show at the Cabaret Metro, a notable Chicago venue. Metro owner Joe Shanahan refused to let the band play until they found a live drummer. The band was introduced to
jazz fusion drummer
Jimmy Chamberlin by a mutual friend. Chamberlin's style did not immediately fit with the band's, but he thought they had potential - thus he joined the group. The Metro show on
October 5,
1988 was the band's first show with the full lineup. The Pumpkins continued to have a close relationship with the venue, playing new tracks there frequently and playing the band's final show at the Metro more than a decade later on
December 2 2000 . The new band fused diverse threads such as
psychedelic rock and
hard rock into a distinctive sound on their inaugural album,
Gish (1991).
After the success of
Gish, the Pumpkins contributed their 1992 single "Drown," to the
Singles soundtrack, then signed to major-label
Virgin Records to record
Siamese Dream. The Pumpkins became known for their elaborate production techniques, layering dozens of different tracks over one another with a wide variety of effects. Siamese Dream's "Soma" uses over 40 guitar tracks alone. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "
control freak" who reportedly went so far as to unilaterally erase other band members' studio tracks and rerecord his own performances over them. The reality of the situation was Corgan had developed a deep
depression and worked overtime for both
Gish and
Siamese Dream, recording some of the guitar and bass tracks for the former and almost all for the latter. Guitarist Iha and bassist Wretzky were losing interest in the band during that time period due to a messy break-up of their personal relationship. Corgan even went on record saying if
Siamese Dream didn't sell well, he would break up the band. The album was well received by critics, and the songs "
Today" and "
Disarm" became smash hits, with the accompanying
music videos receiving heavy airplay on
MTV.
Their 1995 follow up effort, the massive 2 disc set
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was even more wildly successful, spawning a string of hit singles and eventually a box set (
The Aeroplane Flies High, 1996) of songs recorded during the
Mellon Collie sessions which were cut from the album. Releasing a 2 disc album was a risky move for the band, as the album whole holds over two hours of music. With the expanded resources they had at their disposal, production values were even more elaborate for the band, as they branched out beyond their hard rock roots, featuring, for example, dense orchestral accompaniment on "
Tonight, Tonight", ethereal pieces leaning towards rock-
electronica ("
1979"), and a soft piano intro track. The album also included a number of more traditional hard rock-driven guitar-based tracks, such as the first single, "
Bullet with Butterfly Wings", and "
Zero". The album was nominated for seven
Grammy awards that year and would eventually be certified 9 times platinum in the United States, making it one of the best selling double albums of all time.
Their appearance on
Saturday Night Live on
November 11,
1995 to promote this material also was the debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently ever since (as of 2006). Previously, Corgan had, in typical rockstar fashion, varied his hair styles fairly often.
During the album's tour, the band was plagued by Chamberlin's
heroin addiction. On
July 12,
1996, Chamberlin and touring keyboardist
Jonathan Melvoin overdosed in a hotel room. Chamberlin survived, but Melvoin did not. The Pumpkins were forced to fire their disgraced drummer. They completed the tour with
Filter drummer
Matt Walker and
Frogs keyboardist
Dennis Flemion, but the band missed the intense energy that Chamberlin's drumming provided.
Their next effort, 1998's
Adore, was undertaken with drum machines and
studio drummers in place of Chamberlin, and consisted mostly of subdued material. Corgan's mother, Martha, had died from cancer during the making of the record, and in the absence of Chamberlin—Corgan's longtime creative foil—some thought the proceedings took on a halting, confused tone.
Adore earned high praise from some critics and many fans, but other critics and most of the more casual listeners thought the band had strayed too far from its strengths, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 3 million copies, as opposed to 4.5 with
Mellon Collie...).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999, for the band's brief ARISING! tour. 2000 saw
MACHINA/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image; critics were again divided, and sales were not very impressive. Nearing the end of the recording for MACHINA, bassist D'Arcy quit the band and was replaced by former
Hole bassist
Melissa Auf der Maur.
The band's last album would be
MACHINA II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music.
MACHINA/The Machines of God was originally planned to be released as a double album, just like
Mellon Collie..., but was denied by their record label- Virgin. Also, because of MACHINA's overall unimpressive sales they wouldn't allow MACHINA II to be released separately, either, so close to the release of MACHINA. In the end, since the band decided they were to break up shortly afterwards, they had decided that the only proper way to give it to the fans was to release it over the internet via bootlegs. Only 25 copies were made of their last album. It consisted of three 10" EPs and a double-sided 12" LP. These were distributed to 25 chosen fans, with instructions to release the songs for free in
MP3 format over the Internet as soon as possible.
The Smashing Pumpkins split up later in 2000 and played their last show on December 2 of that year at the Metro in Chicago, Illinois.
In 2000, Corgan co-wrote the song "Black Oblivion" with
Tony Iommi for Iommi's eponymous solo album.In July & August 2001, Corgan joined
New Order in the UK and Japan on stage and performed with them in San Francisco, Vancouver, Seattle and Los Angeles on
Moby's Area One Tour supporting their new cd "Get Ready".Later in 2001, Corgan formed
Zwan with Chamberlin and guitarists
Matt Sweeney and
David Pajo, with former
A Perfect Circle bassist
Paz Lenchantin joining in 2002. Zwan's focus on sunny, melodic pop-rock surprised fans and critics, and its album
Mary Star of the Sea (written in and inspired by
Key West, Florida), garnered generally positive reviews. Billy and Zwan also contributed tracks to the 2002 film
Spun (though the tracks were never put on CD). In March 2003, Corgan and Chamberlin performed with Jazz vocalist
Kurt Elling at "The Waltz", an annual benefit for homeless and abused teenagers. Together, they performed a version of
Jimi Hendrix's "Freedom". During an interview with WGN-9 on
September 15 that same year, Corgan announced that Zwan had officially disbanded.
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for
Ric Ocasek,
Hole,
The Frogs, and
Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album
Celebrity Skin. He also acted as a consultant for
Marilyn Manson during the album
Mechanical Animals. He wrote the song "Eye" for the movie
Lost Highway (1997) and has produced three
soundtracks for the movies
Ransom (1996),
Stigmata (1999) and
Spun (2002). He has performed vocals and guitar for
New Order and
Marianne Faithfull. Corgan was also featured on
Blindside's 2004 album
About a Burning Fire, in the song "Hooray, It's LA". Corgan has also written a song entitled "Lost In The Woods" with
Taproot (band) for their 2005 LP
Blue-Sky Research and on
Breaking Benjamin's
We Are Not Alone, Corgan helped write and performed on a song.
On
February 17,
2004, Corgan posted a confessional message on his
blog in which he revealed the fact it was his guitarist
James Iha who had broken up the band
The Smashing Pumpkins four years prior. He also referred to bassist D'arcy Wretzky as
"a mean spirited drug addict." On
June 3,
2004 he posted an apology of sorts to Iha, writing that "i love [Iha] very, very much...the depth of my hurt is only matched by the depth of my gratitude". In another post, Corgan insulted his former
Zwan bandmates, claiming they had been obnoxiously self-conscious about their "indie cred" to the point of hurting those around them. Poking fun at their indie stance, he called them "poseurs". Sounding both enraged and hurt, he declared them to be "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
Although it seems that most of Corgan's professional relationships wither quickly, he and Chamberlin have remained good friends. Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Chamberlin's first solo album
Life Begins Again with the band The
Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. Likewise, Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut.
Corgan published
Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry, in late 2004. The book debuted on the
New York Times Best Seller list. It was also the best-selling poetry book in the
United States in its first week of release.
Corgan released his first solo album
TheFutureEmbrace on
June 21, 2005 through
Reprise Records. It warranted mostly lukewarm reviews from the press and (according to
Pitchforkmedia and
SoundScan) only sold 69,000 copies.[
2]
Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included
Linda Strawberry,
Brian Liesegang and
Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was nowhere near as extensive as previous
Smashing Pumpkins or
Zwan tours.
On the day of the release of "TheFutureEmbrace", Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two most prominent newspapers (
The Chicago Tribune and
The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to reform the Smashing Pumpkins.[
3] Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Billy Corgan's offer for a reunion. [
4]
On
January 1, 2006, the
Chicago Tribune published their 10th Annual Alewife Awards[
5]; a sardonic critique of noteworthy cultural events and figures in the previous year. Amongst the 2005 recipients was Corgan for having "pulled the rug out from under his well-reviewed first solo album... by taking out full-page newspaper ads the day of its release to herald his decision to 'renew and revive The Smashing Pumpkins...'". The award summation also revealed that the advertisement was the means by which former bandmates James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky learned of Corgan's reunion plans.
On
December 11 2005, Corgan wrote on his
MySpace account that a "big surprise" is shortly to be announced. He posted: "The surprise I have in store for you all will be announced soon enough....hold on to your horses. After all, good things surely comes to those who wait....Don't you just love the suspense?".[
6]
In January 2006, rumors began to spread on the internet that The Smashing Pumpkins would reunite at
Indio,
California's
Coachella music festival in April 2006. However, this was proven false when the correct lineup was posted on the Coachella website. The entire rumour was based on a facetious
photoshopped promotional poster for the festival that spread on the internet. According to 91-X
XTRA-FM San Diego music director Marcos Collins, who spoke to Corgan's label, "
Reprise said that for whatever reason Billy backed out of it." [
7] Claims that the band will be on the bill for 2006's
Lollapalooza are also being denied.[
8]
In February 2006,
Melissa Auf Der Maur gave an interview in which she said that Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin were back in the studio working on new Smashing Pumpkins material. She also stated that James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky did not appear to be involved in the recordings. She also stated her willingness to take part in the reunion project: "My services are always there to play my favorite songs. If D'arcy is not available, I'm always happy to be second in line."[
9] Several days later, further confirmation was given by Corgan and Chamberlin after signing a new management deal with
Front Line Management.[
10]
In a
February 3 2006 interview with RollingStone.com,
Courtney Love revealed that she had recorded some new songs with help from Corgan for her forthcoming album, tentatively titled
How Dirty Girls Get Clean. Among the new tracks recorded are "How Dirty Girls Get Clean," "Sad But True," "Sunset Marquis, "Loser Dust" and "Never Go Hungry Again." [
11]
On
April 20,
2006 the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The page stated: "It's official, The Smashing Pumpkins are currently writing songs for their upcoming album, their first since 2000. No release date has yet been set, but the band plans to begin recording this summer." [
12]. On
June 7,
2006 it was reported that
Eric Avery, former Jane's Addiction bass player, was to join the Smashing Pumpkins [
13]. Avery has been sighted recording with the band, but former Smashing Pumpkins and Hole bass player Melissa Auf der Maur is said to be competing with Avery for the position.[
14]. As of late June 2006, Corgan has been living with
Courtney Love for four months. Love revealed in an interview that he has his own wing in her new Hollywood Hills mansion. [
15]
Through his teens and into his early twenties, Corgan had a preference for Fender Mustangs. As his rival, Kurt Cobain, also used this guitar frequently, Corgan began shifting towards the Stratocaster, his Fender '57 reissue Strat being the most prominent in early performances. This was reinforced as Iha played a Gibson Les Paul, a guitar which Corgan felt was a proper counterpoint to his Strat. For the band's third album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Corgan recorded with a variety of different guitars. Although his '57 Fender Stratocasters were still present, all five of the singles were recorded using various Gibson guitars. Also around this time, Corgan put Lace Sensor pickups (Red in the bridge, Silver in the middle, and Blue in the neck) on many of his Fenders. During the tour in support of Mellon Collie, Corgan used his '74 Strat (or the "I-Love-My-Mom"-labeled guitar) and '72 Gibson 335 for performances of "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and "Tonight, Tonight." On the band's fourth album, Adore, and the tour in support, Corgan used mostly Gibson guitars. For the band's fifth and final album, Machina, Corgan adopted the Reverend line of guitars when Reverend sent him a custom Drop C-tuning guitar, which can be seen in the video for "The Everlasting Gaze." "Heavy Metal Machine" was also recorded with Reverend guitars. The amps from previous albums were used for Machina as well. The tour for Machina and Corgan's solo projects also used the Reverend guitars extensively.
An Ovation acoustic was used on 'Stumbleine,' and various 12-string Gibson acoustics were used on 'Take Me Down,' 'Thirty-Three,' and 'Farewell and Goodnight.' 'To Sheila' and the other acoustic tracks on Adore were recorded with a Martin classical guitar.
Every Smashing Pumpkins album also uses Corgan's 1984 Marshall JCM 800 100-watt amp, as well as a Marshall JMP-1 rack preamp. Billy has also been known to use ADA MP-1 preamps. Later on, Corgan augmented his Marshall sound with other amplifiers. 'Tonight, Tonight' and 'By Starlight' use a Vox AC30 amp, and for the recording of Adore, Corgan stored away his previous gear, using new amps altogether.
Corgan is a well-known user of Electro-Harmonix effects, and one could argue that his use of the Big Muff distortion pedal was a major factor in its popularity. He has also made use of the Small Stone and Micro-Synthesizer pedals. More recently, Corgan has been using high-end rack effects and Diezel amplifiers. It is worth mentioning, however, that much of Corgan's recorded guitar tone is the result of densely layered guitar tracks rather than Corgan's equipment.
Albums
*
TheFutureEmbrace - (
21 June 2005) #31 US, #67 GER
Singles
* "
Walking Shade" - (
13 June 2005) #74 UK
*
Billy's MySpace - Includes autobiographical reflections of Corgan's childhood, which is also featured on his official site.
*
billycorgan.livejournal.com - An extensive archive of Billy's journal entries.
*
MetroChicago.com - A link to where you can download Machina II.
*
The Smashing Pumpkins - Billy Corgan's band "The Smashing Pumpkins" official website.
*
Smashing Pumpkins Equipment Page - A more complete look at Billy Corgan's musical equipment.
