Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan recently discussed conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy on The Raven Effect podcast. Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.
Note that Corgan did not say he subscribed to any of the theories, in particular with 9/11 since he was in New York, so other media outlets should not take what he said out of context to try to make him look stupid, as he is mainly talking about his interest in researching the theories, and why the public has an interest in them.
When Raven asked Corgan about 9/11, Corgan remembered being in New York on 9/11.
“That’s a tough one. I mean I was there, so it always starts for me, I was 10 blocks away. I was living in New York at the time, and I was up reading a book at 8 in the morning when the first plane went over. The plane literally flew right over my apartment, that’s no exaggeration, I was literally right on the flight path. So it’s hard if you lived through it and saw the damage and what it did to people’s psyches.
I don’t want to say it doesn’t matter what happened, because of course it does matter what happened, but at the end of the day it’s hard to get too deep into the conspiratorial part, because at the end of the day, people died, and if you don’t start there, it gets strange really fast. Because it’s almost like you’re talking about the end of a TV show, and what would have been a better ending. It’s like, people start arguing about a lot of weird stuff.
It’s hard, I don’t know, I’m no scientist, but I remember thinking that day that it seemed almost impossible what happened, but it did happen, and I was there, and I watched it happen. I have watched things, and read things, where people say things – like I saw one theory where people were saying no plans actually hit buildings, they were holograms. Pretty obviously far out theories, maybe they’re true, maybe they’re not, but I mean I heard the plane go over my head, so I know there was a plane.”
He added, “You hear people talk about the presence of thermite, I think that’s the military grade thermite that can melt steel.”
“Put it this way, all that stuff is outside my pay grade. That’s why I always default to the actual human toll, whatever happened, it was awful.”
Raven then said he believed 9/11 was an inside job, while Corgan was not ready to jump on board with any specific theory.
“That’s where it gets kind of crazy, because it’s one of those things where if any of those theories turned out to be true, the ultimate damage to our civilization or our own American system of belief in government. It would shatter so many things, and I’m a person who wants to know the truth at the end of the day.”
Corgan then discussed the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and how the conspiracy theories surrounding it connect to the 9/11 theories, as they both demonstrate the American public no longer believing everything they are told.
“Around the 50th anniversary of the JFK Assassination, I went back and watched a lot of stuff on it, because it was sort of in the air. You could also draw a straight line from the JFK Assassination to 9/11 as far as the American public no longer believing. We’re back to what we were saying a few minutes ago, it’s like we’re told certain things, but there’s almost an inherent suspicion, and something may be true. I’ve seen polls where 75% of people don’t believe the official story of the JFK assassination for example. If you’ve ever gone into the Robert Kennedy assassination, and how there were more bullets fired than Sirhan Sirhan had in his gun.”
Raven said Sirhan Sirhan was an ‘unwitting assailant’ because he was part of the MK Ultra.
“Again, I’m no scientist, but I’m the type of person where I like to go into the materials myself. So I actually sat up one night and read his notebooks. The writings actually read like somebody who has been hypnotized. The writings are pretty strange and repetitive. So either he’s completely insane, or he’s an MK Ultra plant, or whatever.”
Corgan then discussed how a deeper interest in a subject like this can be misinterpreted.
“All I’m trying to say is, people these days can be very reactionary. You say one thing, and suddenly you take on the mantle of the entire belief. My point is I’m a person that’s not afraid of inquiry. I start from, we should all want to know the truth, and the truth shouldn’t be a problem.”
He later said, “Those are three of the greatest conspiracies that we will ever encounter: JFK, RFK, and 9/11. What makes them fascinating is no one can say this is the absolute definitive truth of what happened.”
