new Billy Corgan interview (Courtney Love, ex-members, etc)
Hugh Freaking Dillon
Posts: 14,010
Let’s talk your girlfriend, Jessica Origliasso of the Veronicas
She’s a really beautiful person inside and out. Those two girls are so talented. I was recently in a writing session with them, they legit, and I’ve told them this, they could both be world class solo artists. It’s crazy they’re both together. They feed off each other’s strengths and weakness. It’s really interesting to watch them work. I really am impressed by both of them musically a lot. I’ve heard a lot of their new stuff, the direction they’re going is really really cool. It’s still very much pop music, but they’re so sophisticated in their knowledge of pop music.
So you’re writing with Jess and Lisa?
It’s more hanging out fun stuff, not like a super pro thing. That’s how I met them, they asked me to write a song, that was the beginning of the whirlwind.
You’ve said you’re in a good place, is that due to being loved up?
I was in a good place and that’s why I ended up in a good relationship. Both of us have been in stormy relationships. You’ve got to be ready to be in a great relationship. Being with someone as beautiful and talented as Jess is you’ve gotta be real. You can’t be a fake version of something. In our lives in a lot of ways it’s all about fake. You’ve got people wanting things for fake reasons. The people you end up closest to are your family and friends. We both understand what it’s like to be not really understood. We have that support for each other and understand what each other are going through. It’s only made my life better. She’s brought a lot of sunshine in my life, but I was ready to receive it. The window was open. If she’d met me a few years ago I don’t know if I would have understood her, she’s just such a unique person, there’s not a lot of people I’ve ever met who are like her. You look at her, she works the homeless glam look, but inside she’s just a sweetie pie. She’s very spiritual, very much about family. We both have Italian background, we laugh and say this is really an Italian relationship.
Is Jessica coming to Australia on this tour?
Can’t say for sure but that’s the plan.
Have you performed on stage together yet?
Not yet. They both love my song Eye, I’m hoping Jess and Lisa will get up and perform Eye with us at some point. We’ll see. She was with me in Mexico, I was trying to get her up on stage but she was too shy.
And you’ve met the parents?
Yep. It’s all great. Everyone’s really nice. She comes from a great family. It’s all good.
So you’re going out with Australian pop royalty…
She’s going out with American rock royalty.
You got photographed together on your visit to Australia with the sisters earlier this year.
It’s all silliness to me. I’ve certainly heard about her past tabloid dramas! I’ve been through all that, to me it doesn’t mean anything. The good thing about being crazy is what are they going to say? He’s crazy? Uh huh. Oh he’s evil? Yeah. He’s old? Yes and getting older. It’s all there. None of it is going to affect me, I’m in a good place, I’m happy, I’m proud to have a woman like her on my arm. She’s someone I really look up to.
You’re bringing Smashing Pumpkins back to Australia with a slightly new line up, what’s different from when we saw you at the V Festival in 2008?
I loved that tour but the way we were playing on that tour was a little bit of the old Smashing Pumpkins mentality, the poke your finger in your chest thing. We didn’t do what people wanted us to do. It’s a little kinder, gentler these days.
Is there a battle for you between playing old hits and showing people you’re still writing new material?
I’ve come into a different place of peace with that. It’s a simple formula for me now, I don’t play any song I don’t want to play. I don’t care what song it is. At the same time I don’t play too much new stuff and I don’t play too much old stuff. Maybe the concert’s a little shorter but the show feels lighter and more to the point.
Did you play songs you didn’t want to play to keep people happy?
I made a bargain in my brain which was `Ok if I’m gonna play these five songs you want to hear I’ll play these five songs I don’t give a f--- if you don’t wanna hear’. I’d play songs that were a bit hard to digest in a live context. That was the trade off I was making. I’ve gotten out of that kind of relationship with myself. It probably sounds a bit silly and childish, but now it’s all coming from a good place. I tend to be reactionary. Sometimes you can create something in your mind that’s not there. Right now we’re not playing 1979 and no one’s complaining because the show is good.
Do you feel like you have something more to prove now you’re the only original Pumpkin in this line up?
I feel my public persona at times has overshadowed my musical accomplishment. I get frustrated when I see people who’ve done less than me and had less success than me enjoying more ass-kissing. I’m held up to different standards. I partially asked for that to happen. I’ve always invited the toughest rock and roll questions with the Smashing Pumpkins. At the same time I’m in my 20th year here of putting out records. It’s not a mistake I wandered into the garden. I’ve had success literally for 20 years, that’s a long time in a business that chews people up and spit them up. So I get frustrated when I feel I have to prove something. So in a childish way in the past my reaction would be to over-prove the point. You want heavy Pumpkins? I’ll give you evil Pumpkins. You want hit songs? I’ll give you hit songs, I just won’t play them the way you want to hear them. I’m out of that now. I’m really happy to play the songs in the way they were recorded, in a way that the whole history of the band is respected. Because I’m respecting my own past. But I’m not a slave to do it. I’ve saved all my money, I don’t need to do or be anything. I’m an independent artist, I’m not on a label, I literally just do what I want to do.
There are fans who’d want to freeze frame you in the Siamese Dream era ...
I know. My friends tell me they saw Bruce Springsteen show where people would only cheer when he played songs form the 80s and they’d talk through new songs. It’s a cultural thing. It’s an old fashioned way to look at music, the `hope I die before I get old’ mentality, that rock and roll doesn’t have a future. You’re too young and dumb when you have your moment and when by the time you realise it you’re too old and on drugs and it’s too late. We’re writing a new rock and roll story, you get up to too close to the sun, you burn out, you crash to the ground but then you pick yourself up and dust off what still means something. There’s a lot of bands way past any point people thought they’d exist AC/DC, the Stones, Paul McCartney. The key for me is releasing new music of a high quality. That’s where I differentiate myself from a lot of peers, they’re just out there making money, they’re not putting out new music and if they are it’s sh-- music. I want to be judged against the highest quality of work not that just that I’ve ever done but that anyone has done. I refuse to become an oldies act. I’m just not interested. I think it’s f---ing boring. And I think anyone who thinks that way is f---ing boring. If you want to come and only hear five songs they’re welcome to, they might get those songs but that’s not what the show is about, those songs are integrated into a much bigger picture.
You’re giving away the new Smashing Pumpkins songs for free on your website so presumably people have heard your new songs?
Yes. But there’s a perception issue that the past was glorious and perfect and the present is some lesser version of that. It’s just not true. You’ve just got to keep putting out quality music. When a 15 year old discovers Pink Floyd from 1970, he doesn’t give a f--- that line up of the band doesn’t exist. He’ll go to You Tube and find some old bootleg live clip. All bands are existing all the time now. When people get sentimental I say there’s tons of videos and record. The old Smashing Pumpkins exist, go listen to them. I’m in the new Smashing Pumpkins, I’m making new music. Don’t weigh me down with something that’s not real. I’m playing songs that represent my past the way I want to be represented. There’s no compromise in that. That way I’m a happy person. I’m not a conflicted artist, I’m in a really happy place. I’ve survived. I’m not burnt out. I haven’t done drugs for ten years. I’m happy, I’m a little fat. That’s about it.
What do you say to people who still think you’re going to reunite the original line up?
The band has really been about the truth. We had a drummer (Jimmy Chamberlain) who was whacked out of his band on drugs, we kicked him out of the band because he was gonna die. You know how many millions that decision cost me? I was more interested in this guy living than making more money. Anyone else would have stopped for three months, put him in rehab and put him right back on tour. This is the truth. I’m gonna play my music. If your reason for not going, whether there’s one original member, two original members, there original members…if that’s your sole reason for not going you’re not a fan of my music and certainly don’t respect what I’ve accomplished. So you’d go if it was Billy Corgan playing Smashing Pumpkins songs but not if it’s Billy Corgan in Smashing Pumpkins playing Smashing Pumpkins songs. Doesn’t that sound shallow? I don’t live in a shallow world. I don’t give a f--- about the pop world. That world isn’t there for me in the down times, when I doubt myself, when I’m scared or lost or feeling lonely. That world only cares about me when they like me. When you learn that lesson again and again you realise that the only thing that matters is what you believe in, what you love, those you love and those that love you. If someone is not going to come see me play after 20 f---ing years because they disagree with the way I present myself and not even give me an opportunity… I meet fans who are excited to be a Smashing Pumpkins fans again because we’re going to keep releasing new music. It’s back to why they liked the band. They didn’t love the band because they loved James, D’Arcy, Jimmy and Billy, they loved the band because the band represented something they believed in, they liked the message, they liked the music. What about the fan that says I love Siamese Dream? Me and Jimmy made the whole record. So you’re not going to go because the drummer’s not there but the guy who wrote almost the whole record is there. They’re arguments for the pop world. I live in alternative world, I don’t live by those rules. I don’t give a f--- about those rules.
Presumably you don’t want to share a stage with your former bandmates…
Why would I get on stage with someone who doesn’t call me for Christmas? Because the guy in the back row who doesn’t give a f-- about my new song, that’s the only way he wants to hear Bullet with Butterfly Wings? They’re silly arguments to me. I understand. I really do. I’ve been in that situation as fan, it’s only one or two original members in a band. I’ve seen bands with members who weren’t part of the original band and I really enjoyed the show, I enjoyed the way they played. And I’ve seen original line ups where they obviously hate each other and it’s boring because there’s no chemistry. It’s more about people’s fantasy. It’s like their porn. It’s their porn fantasy of my world but my world has never been like that. When was my band ever intact? The only time the band only really worked together on the same page in any way that resembles normalcy was Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and even then I still did 85% of those songs.
You’re a Summer Heights High fan.
That show is so f---ing brilliant.
How did you discover that?
Me Aussie girlfriend. When someone says `You have to watch this it’s so brilliant’, Everyone says that but within an hour I was addicted. Over three days we had a Summer Heights High marathon, that’s all we did, watch that show. I can’t wait for his new show.
Can we talk the C word – Courtney Love? There was a lot of drama about you not wanting to release the songs you wrote on Hole’s latest album …
It’s complicated. At the time I was living in her house. Tabloids reported we were back together, I haven’t had any kind of romantic relationship with her since the early 90s. But I was living in her house, I worked on that record for a really long time. I contributed; I was trying to help with her and Linda Perry. She’s a great artist, I’ve always believed in her ability and certainly have looked the other way with her issues. Out of the blue she’s talking shit. She’s got that crazy thing where she creates fantasies if people don’t do what she wants them to do, like saying I snuck onto her record. If you look at her latest set list one third are my songs, or I should say songs I made serious contributions to, I wrote the chorus or the riff. The irony to tell the world totally untrue things about me, and then to go on stage, act like a prima donna and play songs I wrote I just think don’t play my songs if my contribution is so worthless. She’s rendered herself irrelevant. She’s always going to be a great artist but she’s betrayed the important things that made her great so all that’s left is her fire. If people want to go watch her burn herself on stage, well, there’s always going to be someone who wants to see that. But judging by the attendances in America, she’s doing shows for 300 people, 200 people. She’s dug her own grave, I don’t have to do it for her.
She slagged off Jessica too.
I don’t know anything about that but it doesn’t surprise me. There’s no shortage of words to try and describe a pathological creature like Courtney Love
Can we talk about you recording with Jessica Simpson?
This is what it was. She was working on a song for her TV show. She played me the demo, it had potential, so she asked me to help on the song. I wrote a new part, I didn’t play on it, I helped it get in the right direction. That’s all it was.
So to clarify, were you dating Jessica Simpson?
Ah … I don’t know what to say about any of that. If you try to talk about it at all, because she’s such a tabloid figure, there’s no right answer. I have no interest in feeding that. She’s a great person, I care about her as a person, I have nothing bad to say about her, she’s a lovely person behind the scenes. I have no interest in feeding that fire. Courtney I don’t mind kicking dirt on because she’s just an idiot and she continues to slag me off. I’m enough of a gentleman not to talk about the things I’ve seen. She’s literally making stuff up. Believe me, if I told people what I’d really seen, well, if she thinks she’s got problems now…
Do you have any favorite Smashing Pumpkins covers?
Good question. The Passion Pit version of Tonight Tonight was really beautiful. I wish more people would cover my songs.
The first Smashing Pumpkins album Gish turns 20 next year. Any plans for a reissue? Is there a lot of unreleased stuff in the vault?
We have the worst relationship with our old record label. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to get something going. We’ve got so much cool stuff. We hired a professional music archivist at one point to look at what we have in the vaults. He said he’d never seen anything like it. And that’s what he does for a living. He was overwhelmed. We have so much stuff because I always documented everything. We have the first 60 Smashing Pumpkins shows on tape in some form or another. If you are that interested you can literally sit and hear the band from the first gig to the entire build up to the first album Gish, how we got there, horrible gigs, bad songs, the whole thing. We want to put it all out, there’s an audience out there constantly asking for it, but our old record label is just living in some other universe and they’re just not interested. It might come out for 25th anniversary record.
Tell us about the new Pumpkins song you’ve just uploaded, Spangled.
It’s a pretty song. I really like it a lot. It’s classic Pumpkins. It’s been an interesting journey. I’m so excited to be invested in the future of the Smashing Pumpkins again. For a long time it felt with my past `Can I f---ing move on? Can I grow up? Can I get old’. I’m that space now where it is about the future again and I’m excited.
The new line up of the Pumpkins – were they fans of the band before they joined?
Totally. They beg me to play songs. They’re fans. That’s the beautiful thing. They have this really interesting take on what matters to a Smashing Pumpkins fans. They’re not just someone I hired to play the bass. They’re part of the discussion about what it takes to have integrity. It’s simple. We’re coming to Australia. We’re going to tear the house down. People are not going to walk out of those show disappointed. Believe me, I’ve seen people who have seen 40 shows. They have their arms crossed at the start, their hands are in the air by the end. They thank me because they got their fucking band back. That band people who have the fantasy back, that band can’t get on stage. So your choices are what exists or no existences. If that’s the choice, I’m going with what exists. I’m not going back to the other thing. It ain’t going to happen. It’s a fantasy. It’s a porn fantasy, we’re all going to get on stage and hold hands and wave and play all of Siamese Dream perfect. It’s not going to happen. Grow the f--- up. It’s a new world. What would Mr G do? Would Mr G accept this?
She’s a really beautiful person inside and out. Those two girls are so talented. I was recently in a writing session with them, they legit, and I’ve told them this, they could both be world class solo artists. It’s crazy they’re both together. They feed off each other’s strengths and weakness. It’s really interesting to watch them work. I really am impressed by both of them musically a lot. I’ve heard a lot of their new stuff, the direction they’re going is really really cool. It’s still very much pop music, but they’re so sophisticated in their knowledge of pop music.
So you’re writing with Jess and Lisa?
It’s more hanging out fun stuff, not like a super pro thing. That’s how I met them, they asked me to write a song, that was the beginning of the whirlwind.
You’ve said you’re in a good place, is that due to being loved up?
I was in a good place and that’s why I ended up in a good relationship. Both of us have been in stormy relationships. You’ve got to be ready to be in a great relationship. Being with someone as beautiful and talented as Jess is you’ve gotta be real. You can’t be a fake version of something. In our lives in a lot of ways it’s all about fake. You’ve got people wanting things for fake reasons. The people you end up closest to are your family and friends. We both understand what it’s like to be not really understood. We have that support for each other and understand what each other are going through. It’s only made my life better. She’s brought a lot of sunshine in my life, but I was ready to receive it. The window was open. If she’d met me a few years ago I don’t know if I would have understood her, she’s just such a unique person, there’s not a lot of people I’ve ever met who are like her. You look at her, she works the homeless glam look, but inside she’s just a sweetie pie. She’s very spiritual, very much about family. We both have Italian background, we laugh and say this is really an Italian relationship.
Is Jessica coming to Australia on this tour?
Can’t say for sure but that’s the plan.
Have you performed on stage together yet?
Not yet. They both love my song Eye, I’m hoping Jess and Lisa will get up and perform Eye with us at some point. We’ll see. She was with me in Mexico, I was trying to get her up on stage but she was too shy.
And you’ve met the parents?
Yep. It’s all great. Everyone’s really nice. She comes from a great family. It’s all good.
So you’re going out with Australian pop royalty…
She’s going out with American rock royalty.
You got photographed together on your visit to Australia with the sisters earlier this year.
It’s all silliness to me. I’ve certainly heard about her past tabloid dramas! I’ve been through all that, to me it doesn’t mean anything. The good thing about being crazy is what are they going to say? He’s crazy? Uh huh. Oh he’s evil? Yeah. He’s old? Yes and getting older. It’s all there. None of it is going to affect me, I’m in a good place, I’m happy, I’m proud to have a woman like her on my arm. She’s someone I really look up to.
You’re bringing Smashing Pumpkins back to Australia with a slightly new line up, what’s different from when we saw you at the V Festival in 2008?
I loved that tour but the way we were playing on that tour was a little bit of the old Smashing Pumpkins mentality, the poke your finger in your chest thing. We didn’t do what people wanted us to do. It’s a little kinder, gentler these days.
Is there a battle for you between playing old hits and showing people you’re still writing new material?
I’ve come into a different place of peace with that. It’s a simple formula for me now, I don’t play any song I don’t want to play. I don’t care what song it is. At the same time I don’t play too much new stuff and I don’t play too much old stuff. Maybe the concert’s a little shorter but the show feels lighter and more to the point.
Did you play songs you didn’t want to play to keep people happy?
I made a bargain in my brain which was `Ok if I’m gonna play these five songs you want to hear I’ll play these five songs I don’t give a f--- if you don’t wanna hear’. I’d play songs that were a bit hard to digest in a live context. That was the trade off I was making. I’ve gotten out of that kind of relationship with myself. It probably sounds a bit silly and childish, but now it’s all coming from a good place. I tend to be reactionary. Sometimes you can create something in your mind that’s not there. Right now we’re not playing 1979 and no one’s complaining because the show is good.
Do you feel like you have something more to prove now you’re the only original Pumpkin in this line up?
I feel my public persona at times has overshadowed my musical accomplishment. I get frustrated when I see people who’ve done less than me and had less success than me enjoying more ass-kissing. I’m held up to different standards. I partially asked for that to happen. I’ve always invited the toughest rock and roll questions with the Smashing Pumpkins. At the same time I’m in my 20th year here of putting out records. It’s not a mistake I wandered into the garden. I’ve had success literally for 20 years, that’s a long time in a business that chews people up and spit them up. So I get frustrated when I feel I have to prove something. So in a childish way in the past my reaction would be to over-prove the point. You want heavy Pumpkins? I’ll give you evil Pumpkins. You want hit songs? I’ll give you hit songs, I just won’t play them the way you want to hear them. I’m out of that now. I’m really happy to play the songs in the way they were recorded, in a way that the whole history of the band is respected. Because I’m respecting my own past. But I’m not a slave to do it. I’ve saved all my money, I don’t need to do or be anything. I’m an independent artist, I’m not on a label, I literally just do what I want to do.
There are fans who’d want to freeze frame you in the Siamese Dream era ...
I know. My friends tell me they saw Bruce Springsteen show where people would only cheer when he played songs form the 80s and they’d talk through new songs. It’s a cultural thing. It’s an old fashioned way to look at music, the `hope I die before I get old’ mentality, that rock and roll doesn’t have a future. You’re too young and dumb when you have your moment and when by the time you realise it you’re too old and on drugs and it’s too late. We’re writing a new rock and roll story, you get up to too close to the sun, you burn out, you crash to the ground but then you pick yourself up and dust off what still means something. There’s a lot of bands way past any point people thought they’d exist AC/DC, the Stones, Paul McCartney. The key for me is releasing new music of a high quality. That’s where I differentiate myself from a lot of peers, they’re just out there making money, they’re not putting out new music and if they are it’s sh-- music. I want to be judged against the highest quality of work not that just that I’ve ever done but that anyone has done. I refuse to become an oldies act. I’m just not interested. I think it’s f---ing boring. And I think anyone who thinks that way is f---ing boring. If you want to come and only hear five songs they’re welcome to, they might get those songs but that’s not what the show is about, those songs are integrated into a much bigger picture.
You’re giving away the new Smashing Pumpkins songs for free on your website so presumably people have heard your new songs?
Yes. But there’s a perception issue that the past was glorious and perfect and the present is some lesser version of that. It’s just not true. You’ve just got to keep putting out quality music. When a 15 year old discovers Pink Floyd from 1970, he doesn’t give a f--- that line up of the band doesn’t exist. He’ll go to You Tube and find some old bootleg live clip. All bands are existing all the time now. When people get sentimental I say there’s tons of videos and record. The old Smashing Pumpkins exist, go listen to them. I’m in the new Smashing Pumpkins, I’m making new music. Don’t weigh me down with something that’s not real. I’m playing songs that represent my past the way I want to be represented. There’s no compromise in that. That way I’m a happy person. I’m not a conflicted artist, I’m in a really happy place. I’ve survived. I’m not burnt out. I haven’t done drugs for ten years. I’m happy, I’m a little fat. That’s about it.
What do you say to people who still think you’re going to reunite the original line up?
The band has really been about the truth. We had a drummer (Jimmy Chamberlain) who was whacked out of his band on drugs, we kicked him out of the band because he was gonna die. You know how many millions that decision cost me? I was more interested in this guy living than making more money. Anyone else would have stopped for three months, put him in rehab and put him right back on tour. This is the truth. I’m gonna play my music. If your reason for not going, whether there’s one original member, two original members, there original members…if that’s your sole reason for not going you’re not a fan of my music and certainly don’t respect what I’ve accomplished. So you’d go if it was Billy Corgan playing Smashing Pumpkins songs but not if it’s Billy Corgan in Smashing Pumpkins playing Smashing Pumpkins songs. Doesn’t that sound shallow? I don’t live in a shallow world. I don’t give a f--- about the pop world. That world isn’t there for me in the down times, when I doubt myself, when I’m scared or lost or feeling lonely. That world only cares about me when they like me. When you learn that lesson again and again you realise that the only thing that matters is what you believe in, what you love, those you love and those that love you. If someone is not going to come see me play after 20 f---ing years because they disagree with the way I present myself and not even give me an opportunity… I meet fans who are excited to be a Smashing Pumpkins fans again because we’re going to keep releasing new music. It’s back to why they liked the band. They didn’t love the band because they loved James, D’Arcy, Jimmy and Billy, they loved the band because the band represented something they believed in, they liked the message, they liked the music. What about the fan that says I love Siamese Dream? Me and Jimmy made the whole record. So you’re not going to go because the drummer’s not there but the guy who wrote almost the whole record is there. They’re arguments for the pop world. I live in alternative world, I don’t live by those rules. I don’t give a f--- about those rules.
Presumably you don’t want to share a stage with your former bandmates…
Why would I get on stage with someone who doesn’t call me for Christmas? Because the guy in the back row who doesn’t give a f-- about my new song, that’s the only way he wants to hear Bullet with Butterfly Wings? They’re silly arguments to me. I understand. I really do. I’ve been in that situation as fan, it’s only one or two original members in a band. I’ve seen bands with members who weren’t part of the original band and I really enjoyed the show, I enjoyed the way they played. And I’ve seen original line ups where they obviously hate each other and it’s boring because there’s no chemistry. It’s more about people’s fantasy. It’s like their porn. It’s their porn fantasy of my world but my world has never been like that. When was my band ever intact? The only time the band only really worked together on the same page in any way that resembles normalcy was Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and even then I still did 85% of those songs.
You’re a Summer Heights High fan.
That show is so f---ing brilliant.
How did you discover that?
Me Aussie girlfriend. When someone says `You have to watch this it’s so brilliant’, Everyone says that but within an hour I was addicted. Over three days we had a Summer Heights High marathon, that’s all we did, watch that show. I can’t wait for his new show.
Can we talk the C word – Courtney Love? There was a lot of drama about you not wanting to release the songs you wrote on Hole’s latest album …
It’s complicated. At the time I was living in her house. Tabloids reported we were back together, I haven’t had any kind of romantic relationship with her since the early 90s. But I was living in her house, I worked on that record for a really long time. I contributed; I was trying to help with her and Linda Perry. She’s a great artist, I’ve always believed in her ability and certainly have looked the other way with her issues. Out of the blue she’s talking shit. She’s got that crazy thing where she creates fantasies if people don’t do what she wants them to do, like saying I snuck onto her record. If you look at her latest set list one third are my songs, or I should say songs I made serious contributions to, I wrote the chorus or the riff. The irony to tell the world totally untrue things about me, and then to go on stage, act like a prima donna and play songs I wrote I just think don’t play my songs if my contribution is so worthless. She’s rendered herself irrelevant. She’s always going to be a great artist but she’s betrayed the important things that made her great so all that’s left is her fire. If people want to go watch her burn herself on stage, well, there’s always going to be someone who wants to see that. But judging by the attendances in America, she’s doing shows for 300 people, 200 people. She’s dug her own grave, I don’t have to do it for her.
She slagged off Jessica too.
I don’t know anything about that but it doesn’t surprise me. There’s no shortage of words to try and describe a pathological creature like Courtney Love
Can we talk about you recording with Jessica Simpson?
This is what it was. She was working on a song for her TV show. She played me the demo, it had potential, so she asked me to help on the song. I wrote a new part, I didn’t play on it, I helped it get in the right direction. That’s all it was.
So to clarify, were you dating Jessica Simpson?
Ah … I don’t know what to say about any of that. If you try to talk about it at all, because she’s such a tabloid figure, there’s no right answer. I have no interest in feeding that. She’s a great person, I care about her as a person, I have nothing bad to say about her, she’s a lovely person behind the scenes. I have no interest in feeding that fire. Courtney I don’t mind kicking dirt on because she’s just an idiot and she continues to slag me off. I’m enough of a gentleman not to talk about the things I’ve seen. She’s literally making stuff up. Believe me, if I told people what I’d really seen, well, if she thinks she’s got problems now…
Do you have any favorite Smashing Pumpkins covers?
Good question. The Passion Pit version of Tonight Tonight was really beautiful. I wish more people would cover my songs.
The first Smashing Pumpkins album Gish turns 20 next year. Any plans for a reissue? Is there a lot of unreleased stuff in the vault?
We have the worst relationship with our old record label. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to get something going. We’ve got so much cool stuff. We hired a professional music archivist at one point to look at what we have in the vaults. He said he’d never seen anything like it. And that’s what he does for a living. He was overwhelmed. We have so much stuff because I always documented everything. We have the first 60 Smashing Pumpkins shows on tape in some form or another. If you are that interested you can literally sit and hear the band from the first gig to the entire build up to the first album Gish, how we got there, horrible gigs, bad songs, the whole thing. We want to put it all out, there’s an audience out there constantly asking for it, but our old record label is just living in some other universe and they’re just not interested. It might come out for 25th anniversary record.
Tell us about the new Pumpkins song you’ve just uploaded, Spangled.
It’s a pretty song. I really like it a lot. It’s classic Pumpkins. It’s been an interesting journey. I’m so excited to be invested in the future of the Smashing Pumpkins again. For a long time it felt with my past `Can I f---ing move on? Can I grow up? Can I get old’. I’m that space now where it is about the future again and I’m excited.
The new line up of the Pumpkins – were they fans of the band before they joined?
Totally. They beg me to play songs. They’re fans. That’s the beautiful thing. They have this really interesting take on what matters to a Smashing Pumpkins fans. They’re not just someone I hired to play the bass. They’re part of the discussion about what it takes to have integrity. It’s simple. We’re coming to Australia. We’re going to tear the house down. People are not going to walk out of those show disappointed. Believe me, I’ve seen people who have seen 40 shows. They have their arms crossed at the start, their hands are in the air by the end. They thank me because they got their fucking band back. That band people who have the fantasy back, that band can’t get on stage. So your choices are what exists or no existences. If that’s the choice, I’m going with what exists. I’m not going back to the other thing. It ain’t going to happen. It’s a fantasy. It’s a porn fantasy, we’re all going to get on stage and hold hands and wave and play all of Siamese Dream perfect. It’s not going to happen. Grow the f--- up. It’s a new world. What would Mr G do? Would Mr G accept this?
Gimli 1993
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
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the man speaks the truth.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
EV Solo: 7/11/11 11/12/12 11/13/12
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
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I could never get past his voice, however, I am glad to see him using that mouth to diss Courtney Love; possibly the best outlet for it he ever had.
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same here
and he called himself american rock royalty
(maybe he is - just not imo)
"what a long, strange trip it's been"
See that line made me laugh, cause it's essentially how I feel about Billy Corgan and the direction his music has gone in. He seems to have a complete inability to look at things from a fan's perspective.
he kind of annoys me sometimes, but I admire his ability to be innovative in today's music industry climate. giving away 44 songs for free??? who does that? and don't say it's because the music sux, because we can't say that until we've heard all 44. even then, whether it sucks in our eyes or not, people would still have paid for those songs. think of how much money he's losing on this. not many people will pay the money I did for the "limited" 4 song box set 1time, never mind 11!
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
I think the whole concept is kind of pretentious. Not the giving it away for free part, or the limited box set. More the now cliched notion that a lot of artists whose popularity is on a decline, seem to say, that the album format is dead etc. What made the classic Pumpkins albums so good was the fact that the songs all seemed to fit together so well. Releasing a song every couple of months seems more like he's running out of ideas and is afraid to put together a whole album. And 44 songs?! He's gonna be doing it for literally years, are people really going to care in a couple of years?
In terms of the music, I just don't think he's playing up to his strengths. He's not a great vocalist, but he is an incredible guitarist, and has an amazing sense of melody, but I don't hear a lot of that talent going on in the new stuff. To each their own I guess - I'll always check new stuff out, but it's been a long time since Billy Corgan has put anything truly mind-blowing out.
I like maybe half of what SP recorded. I was actually listening to them when I read this interview just now, that's the only reason I bothered. I've come to the conclusion that I should never read or listen to anything Corgan has to say again. If I leave it with just the half of his music that I like, I can respect him. When I hear him or "read" him talk,.. that respect tends to goes out the window.
"To question your government is not unpatriotic --
to not question your government is unpatriotic."
-- Sen. Chuck Hagel
Is some what of an acquired taste. I get that same musical high from SP as I do PJ. As Billy mentions, we do want that porn fantasy so we fans can relive that musical high and he fights it. PJ is able to blend the old with the new, some awesome covers and the band seems to enjoy playing Alive one more fkn time.
I think if he sees one person in the audience chanting for Zero or Bullet he gets mad and can't let it go, cause he hates to be pigeonholed by his own successes. I could see Ed seeing some douche yelling "FUCK EVEN FLOW", pointing at the guy and laugh and says "we weren't going to play it, but now we will, just for you! TWO THREE FOUR!"
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014