Billy Corgan is best known as the frontman of iconic alternative rock outfit The Smashing Pumpkins. However, he’s known for not being one to bite his tongue when it comes to his contemporaries. Let’s look at four different times Billy Corgan had some negative comments to dish out about his fellow musicians.
1. Soundgarden
It’s hard to imagine anyone hating Soundgarden. Chris Cornell was an amazing musician, and Soundgarden delivered some of the best classic grunge hits of the 1990s. Regards, Corgan isn’t exactly a fan of the since-disbanded outfit. Back in 2012, he criticized Soundgarden for getting back together in 2012 after the band had broken up in 1997.
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“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,” said Corgan. “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.”
2. Collective Soul
This rock band did pretty well for themselves in the 1990s with the hit track “Shine”. Corgan, however, wasn’t exactly happy for them. He accused the band of ripping off The Smashing Pumpkins and had no qualms with telling anyone who listened that Collective Soul was full of hacks.
“I f***ing hate that song,” Corgan said of “Shine” during a live performance in 2010. “What a f***ing ripoff of my band.”
Fun fact: Collective Soul released the song “Smashing Young Man” in 1995 as a diss track aimed at Corgan.
3. D’Arcy Wretzky
Billy Corgan has said quite a few negative things about other musicians, including his own band members. D’Arcy Wretzky was part of the Smashing Pumpkins for years before she quit in 1999 to get her substance abuse issues in check. However, she also said that Corgan’s controlling, domineering behavior was another factor that led her to leave the band. Wretzky claimed that Corgan was a pathological liar, more or less. She also claimed that he re-recorded much of her contributions to Siamese Dream himself.
“I gave them a year and a half to prepare for this record,” Corgan said of the creative choice to “do it himself”. “[…] Yet they continue to keep failing me.”
4. Courtney Love
This one was inevitable. Courtney Love of Hole famously dated Billy Corgan for a minute back in the early 1990s before Kurt Cobain was in the picture. Ever since that breakup, the two have been talking smack about each other.
Love famously said that she cursed Corgan to go bald. She also released some songs that she wrote with Corgan without his permission in the 2010s. Corgan publicly told her to “go somewhere nice and love off Kurt’s money” on Twitter.
“I have no interest in supporting her in any way, shape or form,” Corgan later said of the beef. “You can’t throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that.”
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