Billy Corgan Q & A
Smash Hits
Late 1995
Thanks to Eve Stahlberger
Billy Corgan Smashing Pumpkin's outspoken front man, is up for can you handle it grilling? Will he make it through without becoming melancholy and reaching for a kleenex?
Q- Will Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness be the Pumpkins last album?
Billy- It's certainly the last time we'll ever sound this way. I don't know where we'll go from here, but it'll be a completely different direction. It's not like were bored with rock cos we love it. But it's our responsibility to push new territory so the world doesn't pass us by.
Q-Why did you shave your hair off?
Billy- 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.
Q-Do you see The Smashing Pumpkins in a tradition of rock and roll that's not really happening right now?
Billy-We are very much of our time. That's why I wanted to put out a double album...I feel that this album's relevant today, and it may not be relevant in a year even, but it's important in the world right now. It's like a state address.
Q-What makes it relevant right now?
Billy-Things are desperate it's like a mass resignation. I'm only reflecting what I see a desperate class of people with no future. I'm not so far from my suburban learnings that I can't relate. I talked to a lot of kids about their lives in the last two years. I got a lot of letters. There was an interesting comment in Generation X about how this particular generation is so over educated and lives in a world that doesn't need education. So you have all these people with opinions, and there's nothing for them to do with them.
Q-What do you dance to at wedding receptions?
Billy-"Celebration" by Kool and the Gang. That's the standard American wedding song.
Q-What did you do last Halloween?
Billy-My wife and I stayed in and doled out Halloween candy. We knew that the kids would be coming just because it's my house and I ended giving candy out to like these tiny four and five year old kids.
Q-What were you like as a child?
Billy- A quick learner. Very good at responsibility. A day dreamer and I had a lot of energy. I wasn't hyperactive but somewhere close to it.
Q-How did you perceive yourself during adolescence?
Billy-Well awkward...an ugly duckling.
Q-How many psychedelic shirts do you own?
Billy-They've all been retired. There's a closet at home that has all of them in it. Each one brings back a particular memory.
Q-Would you ever make a dance record?
Billy-No. I own dance records and I never play them. It's a complete waste of time, to the point where I realize their okay to shake your ass to but they're no good when your making toast.
Q-What will be on your epitaph? I came, I rocked I fell down and died.
Billy-No I think my headstone will read, "I was never satisfied"
Q-What is your agenda?
Billy- To rock the world.