Billy Corgan claims he improved U2 album ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’
The Smashing Pumpkins have recently released the final part of their rock opera trilogy, Atum, their twelfth studio album. To promote the record, frontman Billy Corgan has been doing the interview rounds, finding time to chat with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1.
Corgan gave a rather revealing interview, even sharing that when Kurt Cobain died, he cried because he’d lost his “greatest opponent”. However, he also talked about some of his favourite bands from the past decades, eventually discussing Irish rockers U2.
The musician explained that in 2000, he gave Bono and his bandmates some valuable advice while they were working on their tenth album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind. He told Lowe, “So, I’m over in Dublin, circa 2000, and I go to visit Bono at his house. We stayed up all night, and in the morning, for some reason, me and him are the only people up, and he says, ‘I want to play you something. We’re going to have to go out in the car, because I don’t want to wake the house up.'”
“So it’s me and him freezing in the driveway, and he pops in and he’s playing me what became the ‘It’s A Beautiful Day’ album, and it’s not all the way there, but sort of there,” added Corgan. “He goes, ‘Tell me honestly what you think.’ I’m like, ‘You really want me to give you my opinion?’… And I told him what I thought. They actually used my advice! He let me know later, ‘Hey, we used your advice.'”
‘Beautiful Day’ remains one of U2’s most well-known songs. Revisit it below.
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