The band Billy Corgan said didn’t have any real songs: “I think the work speaks for itself”
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman has never been one for humble magnanimity. Routinely rubbing the music world the wrong way with the enthusiastic appraisals of his own songwriting gifts, Billy Corgan‘s insecure narcissism has fuelled snipey mud-slinging toward artists he didn’t think match his alt-rock genius, which turns out is most of popular music.
His thin-skinned, preening spite was so infamous Pavement’s ‘Range Life’ has long been speculated to contain a wry sleight on Corgan, resulting in his prissy refusal to play 1994’s Lollapalooza with them on the bill. Ozzy Osbourne’s wife and manager kicked Corgan off the Sharon Osbourne Management company after just four months, telling Q in 2000 he was a “six-foot baldy twat in a dress” due to his alleged diva conduct at a press junket.
The fact is, he does possess the talent underneath his flagrant egotism. Siamese Dream and the double-LP opus Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness are two of the finest records of the 1990s, and while his jump into Nosferatu goth and arch-dystopian concepts toward the end of their initial run were certainly silly, they still contained fantastic tracks which also confidently flexed Corgan’s eclectic chops and admirable push to evolve as an artist.
Still, trashing other artists seems to be par for the course as Corgan floats between one interview and the next. One band consistently centred in the targets of his ire is Seattle grunge stadium sellers Pearl Jam. Appearing on The Howard Stern Show in 2014, Corgan let rip on the band while also comparing himself to the scene’s leading artist for good measure: “I think the work speaks for itself…I don’t think they have the songs right. I think you stack my songs up and Cobain’s songs up, and that band’s songs… they don’t have the songs.”
In a rare flash of contrition, Corgan expressed respect for building the rock stature they have but confessed to confusion as to their immense popularity. Pearl Jam did indeed go from strength to strength. In the year grunge died, 1994’s Vitalogy was one of the biggest-selling vinyl releases in its first week, the group going on to confidently sell out arenas to this day.
While they have lapsed into gruff, alt-rock derivativeness of late, the first two LPs Ten and Vs. are filled with massive rock anthems contrary to the notion they lack a respectable songbook.
Corgan hasn’t hidden his flagrant sense of jealousy at Pearl Jam’s meteoric rise. Speaking on the Why Not Now? podcast in 2017, Corgan revealed the impact Nevermind and Ten‘s immediate success had on his own ambitions for stardom: “Everything I had built myself up to be and do was no longer as relevant as it needed to be. I went into a very strange depression because I felt like something had been not taken, but the change made me feel kind of inadequate in a way I wasn’t prepared for.”
The bitter feelings aren’t mutual. When Pearl Jam was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, bassist Jeff Ament proudly donned a shirt listing the nearly 100 artists who’d yet to be inducted at the time (erroneously including Tom Waits who was honoured in 2011), Smashing Pumpkins was included among their personal heroes.
