Billy Corgan Reacts To Being Called Pain In The Ass

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Legendary Smashing Pumpkins frontman William Patrick Corgan discussed the public and media perception of him in a new CBS Philly Radio interview. Alternative Nation transcribed WPC’s comments.

“At this point we’ve entered an age where people literally curate a digital version of themselves, and they spend a lot of energy doing that. There’s a lot of good social reasons why you do that, it’s a new form of peacocking. I’ve come to the conclusion that I lost control of the avatar of Billy Corgan years ago. People can turn that persona into whatever they want it to be.”

“I think it’s shown through the years that I just don’t care enough about that stuff to play that game. I’ve thrown plenty of logs on the fire on purpose, because I thought it was funny. It’s performance.”

He later said, “It’s like a character actor, at some point you become kind of type cast. You can go with that character, or you can go against that character. Trust me, the Billy Corgan is a pain in my rear end started long before Smashing Pumpkins. That goes back to like first grade. I was the guy messing with the teacher, I was the guy messing with the guy next to me in class. I’m a prankster, I’m a punk, whatever.

So I don’t care enough about the argument, it’s the idea like [of] what is clean? Or what is pure? Or what is integrity in a business where everyone sells out to start with? You’re talking about shades of selling out, and shades of integrity, and posturing. Somebody is friends with the guy at The Village Voice, so he gets the good review, but they don’t like your voice, so you get the bad review. There’s so many iterations of it.

Now as the political process has become more transparent, we see it in politics now. Politics has become entertainment. It’s just a bunch of forms of manipulation.”