Billy on his early beginnings

"My earliest memory is of feeling different. My parents told me that I wasn't like other children."

"I wish from Day One, people could would have looked at me and said, 'You're all right, come on, join the team,' but it's never been that way with me. I don't know why."

"I never seemed to fit in. But it made me try to strive for things ten times harder."

"I never felt comfortable with other drummers. I always had the feeling they were staring at my ass......but with Jimmy, I know he can't see that far."

With Jimmy you are looking at a guy coming from fucking Joliet (Illinois). I met the guy and he was playing in Holiday Inn bands. this is a man who came from nothing, is not affluent, who is not highly educated, and has gone on to become one of the most respected drummersof his generation. Just his individual story is a complete tragedy. I believe that God gives you a couple of warnings, and the warnings were all there for him to see, and for whatever reason, he didn't see them. He's lucky to be alive." - About Jimmy's overdose and firing from the Pumpkins

Q: Was the band lacking something without Jimmy then?
Billy: "We noticed the absence of a maniacal laugh."

"I don't know if God would agree with me, but believing in God is kind of unimportant when compared to believing in yourself. Because if you go with the idea that God gave you a mind and an ability to judge things, then he would want you to believe in yourself and not worry about believing in him. By believing in yourself you will come to the conclusion that will point to something."

"People always called The Cure gloomy, but listening to the Cure made me happy. There was something about the gloominess that gave me comfort, and I think we're the same way."

"Music's pretty cool and I'm glad to be a part of it. Sometimes when you reach for the stars, you end up in the fucking shit. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in America. I don't believe in rock-and-roll. I believe in me."

"I have a hard time thinking of men trying to sing my songs, because I think my perspective is very much feminine... For me the idea of having a feminine perspective is a willingness to be vulnerable. It's very easy to cock-rock and posture. I can't help but wear my heart on my sleeve-- I'm like nervous endings. That's just the way that I am and, to me, that's very female because it's not a male thing to do. A male thing to do would be to fuckin' posture."

"I don't necessarily believe that the sting of failure is a bad thing. It gives you a certain amount of freedom to just say 'fuck it!'."

"Nobody wants to hear about justice unless there's injustice, especially in America. We don't care about sexual harassment until the president gets a blow job, you know."

"This is not a reaction against a negative world. It's a response to a negative world."

"Certainly the media saturation is way worse. Now you turn on the TV, and there's fashion and culture and news aimed directly at 16-year-olds...I've met kids who get laid at 10, 12. I didn't lose my virginity until I was 18. Kids are acting grown-up, but they're not grown-up inside."

"I'm not going to die glamorously. I'll probably be eating a Twinkie, take a bite, and fall over."

"The whole point of the Smashing Pumpkins was to blow everybody away, so it didn't make sense to be funny at the same time. We were too busy trying to pummel your fucking head in."

"You know, my father's biggest complaint recently is people keep telling him he looks like me."

"Been there, done that, seen it, heard it, pissed on it." - from a SPIN article.

"Me and my father have the same slouch and walk. I've been to family gatherings, after dinner, everyone goes into the living room, there will be eight people all sitting in the same Corgan way."

"I cut all my fucking hair off, thats what I did. It seems like a very obvious thing, but this idiot can't seem to see it," - during a concert after someone asked where his hair went.

"The closer I get back to being who I really am, the stronger the music gets."

"We don't make music for people to take drugs to, we make music for people to live their life."

"For a 6-foot-3 guy with no hair and a whiny voice, I've done all right."

"I'm about to take the stupid shirt off... but the band won't let me"

"We're not getting any prettier."

For, like, two years, every interview was, and occasionally still is, 'Don't you guys hate each other?' "

"Well, pretty much everything from casts, to breasts, to you name it. Cars." - on Regis and Kathie Lee when asked what the weirdest thing he's ever been asked to autograph.

"Babyface is going to produce our next album."- at the Grammy post show.

"I just got so sick of worrying about appearance that by shaving my hair completely de-emphases the way I look. I kind of subscribe to the Einstein theory that the less you have to think about the more upwards you become."

"'Disarm' is about when I became an asshole."

"I hate how in magazine pictures, they always stick me somewhere in the back. It means they don't think I'm the cute one."

Kurt Loder: "Will you be growing your hair back soon?"
Billy: "Yes... But only through the ears."

"I'd probably be the guy your brother buys pot from or something." - during an interview when asked what he'd be doing if he wasnt playing music.

"And interestingly enough, it was the guitar that saved my ass on this album [Adore] because every time I felt that something wasn't working, I'd reach for the guitar and it would tell me where songs needed to go. I always went back to what I know. Because it is the thing that I know, I do know. I'm never quite sure about anything else, but I know how to play the guitar."

"The basic thing is just fuck everybody. It's that feeling where no one understands: 'Who the fuck are my friends? Fuck you. Fuck everybody. Fuck everything.' It's just that thought - pure frustration." - on "Fuck You (An Ode to No One)"

"Physically, we overpower anybody as a band."

"I don't have a problem with my voice - I accept and appreciate it. As many people point out to me, it's the distinction that makes the Pumpkins unique."
 

"My Mother came to a Smashing Pumpkins gig once, and I was wearing a dress. She was very upset. She said, 'Everyone's gonna think your a fag.' I said, 'Well, they already think I'm an asshole.' "
 

"My favorite are the people who sit down during the songs they don't like and stand up during the ones they do- those are my favorite people. Go ahead and sit down cause you're not gonna like this one so... If you're bored already, I would, I would just go. You've already heard most of the hits so...We'll keep trying though." - during a concert

At a show Billy asks Matt Walker for a "funky beat." He then hops round the stage tells the crowd to throw their hands in their air and breaks into ‘Killing me softly.’
- "How 'bout those Fugees?"

"Alright, dancers...and you are dancers. Don't disappoint me or I will hurt you. James will now read you your rights...and a small disclaimer insuring the Smashing Pumpkins against any harm or injury should anyone fall." - talking to the fans picked to dance on stage during "1979" at a concert .

At a show - "Get your filthy ape paws off me!"

"Before Thanksgiving, the turkey on your tables was a happy, free turkey, who could think and do as he wished. Just think about that after you're done eating on Thanksgiving." - talking to his fans during a concert around Thanksgiving.

"I guess we should apologize now for making you all miss the Super Bowl. If it makes you feel any better, um, in the second quarter the players decided that they were all going to choose the path of non-violence and they all gave up football. So the game was suspended anyway so you're not missing anything." - talking to fans at a concert on the same day as the Super Bowl.

"See, we don't normally play this song, we thought it would be kinda fun to play it, but obviously we don't know our own songs, so... We'll just play some Bush or Stone Temple Pilots or something... [band plays short "Smells Like Teen Spirit" riff] ... Usually we wait until the end of the concert to apologize for sucking, but I will apologize now. I'm very sorry -- we suck."

"She didn't even like my first album, the bitch!" - Onstage, talking about Chris (his ex wife), who he had recently broken up with.

At a show, during 'Bullet with Butterfly wings' a Billy spotted a boy hanging from the balcony:
"I said rat in a cage, not a fucking monkey on a wire!"

At a show James introduces Billy:
James: "And on the microphone, Mr Bryan Adams!"
Billy: "It cuts like a knife, let me tell you."

At a show:
"A song for all the lovely people I met today."
He then breaks into the song ‘Fuck you.’

"Well, what we normally do, is every city we go to, we hire a fifteen year old boy and we turn it up until he starts to make a funny face, and then we turn it up about ten notches louder then that." - explaining how they decide how loud a concert should be.

"You see all those empty seats? That's not who we play for -- we play for you. I want you to remember, we won't forget you -- so don't you forget about us." - to diehard fans who stayed at a concert for "Silverfuck."

"How cute. A Big Bird doll with a zero on his chest... I am against the... disgrace of innocent Sesame Street dolls... I was molested by big bird himself once... When I saw that thing flying at me, it brought back a lot of painful memories... I can't tell you what he did to me... But, he does have that long beak..." - reacting to when a fan threw a Big Bird stuffed animal at him during a concert.

"Hey Hey Hey...You're right."- answering to a fan who said, "Hey Hey Hey... You're Billy Corgan!"

Therapist: I hear you've been having some problems with your band, and I wonder, would you like to tell me about them?

Billy: Just let me make this analogy. You wanna go to the circus, and to get into the circus it costs you five … pence.

Therapist: Yeah.

Billy: So, you stand in line, you don't have five pence, but you really wanna go to the circus. So someone comes along and says, "Well, I'll take you in the circus and I'll pay the five pence, but you gotta pay me back later." So, you go in the circus, they take you out. "Oh, OK, well, when you gonna pay me back?" "I don't know. I'll get around to it sooner or later." … That's the story of the band.

[Therapist shoots look at camera.]

Back to Billy's page
Back to Index