Five musicians that Billy Corgan hates
Billy Corgan founded the Smashing Pumpkins in 1988 alongside D’Arcy Wretzky, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin, but frontman Corgan has remained the only consistent member. The band quickly became one of the most successful acts of the 1990s, selling over 30 million albums worldwide and cementing their place in the annals of rock music history.
Emerging during a significant period in the development of alternative rock, the Smashing Pumpkins found critical and commercial success with their second studio album, Siamese Dream, shortly followed by Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, which Corgan hoped to be his generation’s The Wall.
Despite their success, Corgan has always been a divisive figure, constantly finding himself feuding with other musicians or hated by his contemporaries. In Kim Gordon’s memoir Girl in a Band, the Sonic Youth member summed up his reputation the best, writing: “Nobody liked [Corgan] because he was such a crybaby, and Smashing Pumpkins took themselves way too seriously and were in no way punk rock.”
Over the years, Corgan has spewed vitriolic comments towards various artists, from his ex-girlfriend Courtney Love to indie heroes Pavement. Here are five musicians that Corgan has not spoken of too fondly.
Five musicians that Billy Corgan hates:
Courtney Love
Before Hole frontwoman Courtney Love married Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, she was dating Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan. However, the crush she developed on her eventual husband, paired with Corgan’s distant behaviour, led to their breakup in 1991. Since then, the pair have intermittently been at each other’s throats, proving that it was for the best that they parted ways. In 1995, Love introduced Hole’s performance of ‘Violet’ on Later…With Jools Holland by saying: “This is a song about a jerk, I hexed him and now he’s losing his hair.”
In 2010, Love released songs written with Corgan without permission, much to his annoyance. He decided to take his dissatisfaction public, writing on Twitter, “Go [somewhere] nice and live off [Kurt Cobain’s] money.” Corgan even told Rolling Stone that he did not want the songs made public, stating that he had “no interest in supporting her in any way, shape or form. You can’t throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that”.
Although Love was surprisingly friendly in response, Corgan also took a dig at her parenting skills. He wrote: “The world is aware of your lack of responsibility, as seen in the [government] taking away your parental rights. Only you could abandon such a beautiful, incredible child who is smarter than [you], cooler than [you], and better than [you]. Oops, did I say too much?”
Soundgarden
Although the Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden were friendly during the 1990s, Corgan ignited a feud between himself and his contemporaries when he criticised them for reuniting in 2012. He said: “There are those bands that are essentially coming back only to make money – playing their old albums, and maybe somewhere in the back of their minds they’re thinking there might be a future.”
Corgan continued: “I am not in that business, obviously. I condemn anybody who’s in that business but doesn’t admit he’s in that business. When Soundgarden came back and they just played their old songs, great. I was a fan of Soundgarden, but call it for what it is. They’re just out there to have one more round at the till; same with Pavement and these other bands.”
Corgan kept the feud going, with Chris Cornell hitting back, claiming that he got the Smashing Pumpkins singer a movie deal when he needed cash. However, Soundgarden’s guitarist Kim Thayil hit the hardest, telling The Dallas Observer, “We don’t have one member who is deciding the composition of an album. You should know who I am talking about, but I am not going to name names. […] There are many bands out there that are led by one guy who does all the writing. He might have some religious epiphany or some psychedelic experience, and he will write all this material that can very easily suck. And the rest of his band feels like they have to play it. That is not Soundgarden. Consequently, we have never made a record that sucked.”
D’Arcy Wretzky
After playing bass on six Smashing Pumpkins albums, D’Arcy Wretzky called it quits in 1999 after she developed a severe drug addiction and Corgan’s controlling behaviour became too much to handle. Talking to Alternative Nation, Wretzky explained: “He can’t sing for shit, and he knows it, so he makes sure that everybody else in the band is going to play perfectly to make up for it. It doesn’t matter if his singing is terrible, but if you play a fucking wrong note or anything, there is hell to pay. That’s some big time insecurity.”
When Wretzky shared that Corgan once claimed he had a brain tumour, the singer told Howard Stern: “Yeah, that would fall under one of the 400 libellous and defamatory things she said that has no bearing in reality”. But why do they hate each other so much? Their feud stems from Corgan’s poor treatment of his bandmates, particularly during the recording of Siamese Dream when he re-recorded all of Wretzky’s contributions himself. He told Spin Magazine that he “gave them a year and a half to prepare for this record … yet they continue to keep failing me.”
Collective Soul
American rock band Collective Soul found success in the 1990s with their song ‘Shine’, much to the dismay of Corgan. He believed the band ripped off Smashing Pumpkins to create the popular track and was pretty outspoken about it. Thus, in 1995, Collective Soul penned a track entitled ‘Smashing Young Man’ which included the lines, “Your tongue is just lashing/ Just bitching by habit”. For some reason, Corgan has carried his hatred of the band with him for years.
In 2010, he began covering the song during a live performance before stopping to state, “I f**king hate that song. What a f**king ripoff of my band.” However, in a 2019 interview with Alternative Nation, Corgan expressed that his distaste for the band still hasn’t subsided. When asked, “Did you make peace with Collective Soul?” he replied, “Fuck Collective Soul. Now and always.”
Pavement
Similar to his hypocritical outbursts regarding Soundgarden’s reunion, Corgan has also hit out at Pavement’s choice to reunite for live performances. In 2010, he tweeted: “Just found out [Smashing Pumpkins are] playing with Pavement in Brazil. It’s gonna be one of those New Orleans-type funerals. I say that because they represent the death of the alternative dream, and we follow with the affirmation of life part.”
He also wrote: “Funny how those who pointed the big finger of ‘sell out’ are the biggest offenders now.”
His hatred for the band stems from a tongue-in-cheek lyric Stephen Malkmus sang in Pavement’s song ‘Range Life’: “Out on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins/ Nature kids, I, they don’t have no function/ I don’t understand what they mean/ And I could really give a fuck.” Although Malkmus later claimed that he was not taking a dig at their music, merely their band name, that didn’t stop Corgan from holding a grudge.
Corgan was so annoyed that he had the band dropped from the Lollapalooza line-up. He reaffirmed his decision by stating: “People don’t fall in love to Pavement … they put on Smashing Pumpkins or Hole or Nirvana, because these bands actually mean something to them.”
