The musician Billy Corgan called “the real deal”
One of the most influential figures in the story of alternative rock, Billy Corgan has more than earned his stripes. An accomplished songwriter and undoubted guitar hero, The Smashing Pumpkins leader has always backed up his creative force with a unique character, and one that has been prone to delivering the odd curious point at regular intervals.
When speaking to Zane Lowe in May 2023, Corgan reflected on the brilliance of the late Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain and their respective places in 1990s alternative rock. At first, The Smashing Pumpkins mastermind was agreeable, with him asserting that Cobain was a generational talent.
“I want the Pumpkins standing on the top of the heap of our generation,” Corgan said. “If that means I got to write 800 songs to do it, I’ll do it. I ain’t shy about that. I will go down always as saying, Kurt was the most talented guy of our generation. Kurt had so much talent. It’s like frightening. It was like a John Lennon level of talent, where you’re like, ‘How can you have all this talent?’ Or Prince, right? But Kurt’s not here, sadly. So I looked around, I was like, ‘All right, well, I could beat the rest of them for sure.'”
However, this is Billy Corgan, so a surprise was around the corner. He then called the Nirvana man his “greatest opponent”, revealing that he cried when he died because he had lost his artistic rival. “When Kurt died, I cried because I lost my greatest opponent,” he claimed. “I want to beat the best. I don’t want to win the championship because it’s just me and a bunch of jabronies, to use a wrestling term. It’s like, Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest sports competitor I’ll ever see in my lifetime — I mean, you want to talk about an alpha. That guy wanted to win the valet tip. You know what I mean?”
That discussion proved one of the most compelling that Billy Corgan has delivered in a long time. From Kurt Cobain to Radiohead, the interview was brimming with his classic hot takes. At one point, attention turned to Deftones frontman Chino Moreno, who has never shied away from praising Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins and their impact on him. It transpires that Corgan has a lot of love for Moreno, too, and labelled him “the real deal”.
Recalling a comedic anecdote from the first time he crossed paths with the Deftones vocalist, Corgan said: “I’d never met Chino in my life. And I go backstage to pay my respect to say hi. And as soon as I walk through the door, Chino looks at me, he goes, ‘Recognise some of the riffs?’ Oh, Chino, man. The real deal.”
When speaking to Forbes in 2020 around the release of Ohms, it was put to Moreno that the track ‘Pompeji’ had a bit of a Smashing Pumpkins “vibe”. In response, Moreno outlined how Corgan has influenced his work. He said: “Yeah, I’m sure that influence comes out. I felt like there are a couple, even vocally, where I think, ‘I hear a little Billy [Corgan] there.’ He’s always been on an influence on me, as a guitar player, as a vocalist. Always been one of my favourites. I learned how to play guitar by playing along with Pumpkins’ records, Jane’s Addiction records.”
The respect is so mutual between Corgan and Moreno that in 2018, on The Smashing Pumpkins’ 30th anniversary tour, Moreno joined the band to play both ‘Bodies’ and ‘Snail’ in New Jersey.
Watch the footage below.
