Billy Corgan: Smashing Pumpkins Not Coming to An End

A few months back, Billy Corgan said that the future of Smashing Pumpkins was “murky,” noting that he would “need to evaluate the musical purpose of the Pumpkins.” Of course many, including Riffyou.com, thought this meant that Corgan would perhaps end the band.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Corgan clarified that comment, by stating that his words were taken out of context.

“Never said that,” offered Corgan when asked about the comment. “I have been asked about it maybe 40 times since, and I have said the same thing every time. Never said it. All I was saying was that if these albums that I am doing – I’m now on the second of the two – don’t go where I need them to go, then I would take the Smashing Pumpkins in a different direction, i.e., I would maybe make four-hour albums, or I would make one song at a time again. But it doesn’t fly in the social-media era, because all it does is become clickbait. No one will actually read what you said. No one will actually read the subtext of your quote. I’m waking up and realizing that I don’t want to be clickbait anymore. Here’s a good headline: “Billy Corgan Slams Himself.” [Laughs.] “Billy Corgan Rips Himself.”

When asked to absolutely confirm that Smashing Pumpkins would be “alive and well for the foreseeable future,” Corgan added:

“Yeah, I think the new album we’re making is very exciting. It’s very futuristic. I’ve basically said that Smashing Pumpkins dies when I die, and maybe not even then. Maybe my niece will take over the franchise when I’m dead. Kiss is already talking about continuing past Gene and Paul, so why not the Smashing Pumpkins beyond William Patrick Corgan? We live in an era when everything is alive and everything is dead at the same time. If you are a fan of a particular band that’s older, you can go on YouTube and relive their past as much as you want to. You don’t have to go see them live. You don’t have to listen to their new music. And then you have fans that are really not connected to, in my case, the Nineties. They know the Nineties music, sort of, but it’s not their music. We are dealing with a conflux of so many different audiences coming from so many different directions now.”

There you have it.

Please be sure to follow us on Twitter @riffyou and at Facebook.com/riffyou.

RIFFYOU.com Home