Howard Stern interviewed Smashing Pumpkins members Billy Corgan, James Iha, and Jimmy Chamberlin last year, and he even featured an interesting conversation he had with Corgan about seeing a shapeshifter in his fantastic new book Howard Stern Comes Again. Stern also writes about Chris Cornell, Scott Weiland, Dave Grohl, Courtney Love, and other 90’s rock icons in the book.
Billy: I have had paranormal experiences in my life.
Howard: What happened to you?
Billy: I can’t.
Howard: Were you abducted? What happened? I wanna know.
Billy: I’m turning red. I’m so embarrassed.
Howard: Don’t be embarrassed. Share.
Billy: Let’s just say I was with somebody once and I saw a transformation that I can’t explain.
Howard: The person transformed into something other than human.
Billy: Yes. I saw it.
Robin: Were you on drugs?
Billy: I was not. I was totally sober.
Howard: You were talking to someone. You were having a conversation like we are now. And the person said to you, “Look, something’s gonna happen here. I’m gonna morph into something else.” And you’re like, “This is ridiculous.”
Billy: That’s not how it happened. Imagine you’re doing something and you turn around and there’s somebody else standing there.
Howard: A different human.
Billy: Sort of. It’s hard to explain without going into detail. I’d rather not go into detail.
Howard: Okay, but did you say to the person, “What’d you just do here?”
Billy: Yes. And they acknowledged it.
Howard: And what did they say they were? From another planet?
Billy: They wouldn’t explain.
Howard: Billy, I’ve had that happen with a woman once. She took her makeup off and I didn’t know who the fuck she was. She really tricked me. Wow—
Howard Stern and Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan also discussed suicide in the wake of Chris Cornell, Anthony Bourdain, Chester Bennington, and Kate Spade dying by suicide. Corgan opened up about seriously contemplating suicide when he was younger, and Stern asked Corgan if he would ever consider doing it now. Alternative Nation transcribed their conversation. You can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
Howard Stern: Thank God you didn’t kill yourself, I would have been so pissed off at you.
Billy Corgan: My son would be mad too.
Howard: Everyone would be mad. There’s no chance that I’m going to read in the paper that you did this one day? Like all of a sudden you tied yourself to a door or something?
Billy: No. As somebody who has stood right on the edge of taking my own life, I am not only firmly against it, I would say that it is never worth it.
Howard: Good. But you still get dark inside right?
Billy: Yeah, of course.
Howard: What is the secret? What do you do to make sure you don’t take that extra step?
Billy: To me it is a spiritual question. This is my version. You are saying to God, I don’t accept my circumstance, and I’m going to stop this game. The secondary part of that is you are saying, ‘I can’t imagine a tomorrow where there will be laughter or happiness.’ That is unfathomable to me now, and that’s what keeps me going. I think of my son. I think about how I could sell everything and move to an island.
You do what you got to do to get through, but under no circumstances, I would say maybe the only asterisk is if there is a health issue, but that’s a totally separate question, but if you are healthy in head and heart, I can’t imagine a circumstance where you would take your own life. Anybody in our business who has I really grieve for them and their families, because God gave them so much, and we lose so much when we lose those people.
