The Smashing Pumpkins appeared on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show this week, live from the SiriusXM studios in Los Angeles. The band unveiled “The World Is a Vampire Tour,” promoted their upcoming album, Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts (out April 21) and performed two songs live in the studio ("1979" and "Empires").
Before bringing in bandmates Jimmy Chamberlin, Jeff Schroeder, and James Iha for the musical performance, frontman Billy Corgan sat down with Howard for a captivating interview covering everything from the concepts behind his band’s new music to how he proposed to his fiancée. The candid conversation also touched upon Corgan’s childhood, his rocky relationship with his parents, and the loss he felt after the death of musician Lisa Marie Presley as well as how life’s bleakest moments inspired some of his most cherished hits, including chart-topper “Today.”
Even after the band found fame and success, Billy couldn’t drown out his detractors. “Maybe there was a lot of praise, but I didn’t hear it because when you’re in that mindset you just hear the criticism,” Corgan told Howard on Tuesday. “My memory was like, we would get on stage and play to 15,000 people, and I’d walk off stage, and somebody would [say], ‘You shouldn’t have done that … You’re such an idiot.’”
He recalled feeling like a world-class chef asked to dumb down his menu. “You made an amazing meal, and somebody takes you in a room and goes, ‘If you’d just make a fucking hot dog you’d be 10 times bigger and make a ton of money,’” he said.
“If your own parents tell you you’re a fucking idiot, and then a guy 15 years down the road is calling you an idiot — and he’s the manager of [successful bands] — you’re thinking, ‘Well, that’s just how it is. What do I know?’” Billy said, explaining that even after writing and recording a mega-hit like “Disarm” he didn’t feel supported by those around him. “Not once after that song did anybody in my life — anybody — pull me in a room and say, ‘Can you give me more of that?’ … They were like, ‘Give me more of the ones that sell sausages.’”
Billy seems far less concerned these days with what other people think. “When I think about what plagued me in the ‘90s, I just laugh,” he said at one point. “I was so obsessed with a bunch of stuff that didn’t matter.”
Billy Corgan on his dad: “He stole money from me multiple times,” the frontman said shortly before sharing a wild anecdote about how his father once invited him out to dinner despite being so broke after being released from prison that he was living in a drug den underneath Chicago’s “L” train.
“He showed up — new clothes, new car. I said, ‘Did you rent this car?’ He laughed and said, ‘Sorta,’” Corgan recalled. Shortly thereafter Billy learned his father’s fortunes had quite drastically changed. “His wife’s aunt had won the Florida state lottery — $27 million, clean … but my father didn’t want me to know because [he thought] I would ask him for my money back that he stole from me,” Billy told Howard. “That’s how my father’s brain worked.”
Billy Corgan on getting married: “She [Chloe Mendel] just wouldn’t give up on the idea of being married. I made her admit all the reasons she wanted to get married, one of which was also financial security,” he recalled. “But that made me trust her because I was like, ‘At least you’re putting your cards on the table.’ … Anybody who’s worth their salt should want to be in a successful relationship and security should be part of that.”
“‘You’ve lived your whole life a certain way and it hasn’t worked. You’ve been with this person for 10 years … You have 2 kids, your kids are great, your home is stable … Stop waiting for somebody to do for you what you wish they’d do for you. Why don’t you do for somebody what you think is right?’” he remembered thinking. “And I finally was able to call that out in my head.”
“It was her 30th birthday and I gave her a picture of a ring that I had designed,” he confessed. “She’s still mad I didn’t propose – I just kind of gave her a picture of the ring.”
Billy Corgan remembers Lisa Marie Presley: When Lisa Marie Presley passed away suddenly earlier this year, Billy performed at the singer-songwriter’s funeral. In addition to being friends, Corgan co-wrote a song off her 2003 debut, “To Whom It May Concern.” “I wish I’d sort of taken more possession of it because she never really got her music thing off the ground,” he said, noting he was too busy at the time to work more on the project. “She was actually really talented … If you get a chance to hear her voice, she inherited a lot of her father’s great depth and the voice and it’s a shame that she didn’t make more music.”
“She was awesome – that was a tough one,” he said of Lisa Marie’s death. “That was really hard for me because she was a one-of-a-kind person and the world really didn’t know her because they of course always knew her as Elvis’ daughter, but she was a really, really, cool, unique person.”
“She did remember him, and she had really glowing things to say about her father,” Corgan revealed. “I got to know her father through her in a way that I’ve never seen him in public. So, I got this like front-row seat of what Elvis the person was like and, if you know what Elvis the person was like from her perspective, Elvis is even more amazing.
“If you look at it completely from a musicology point of view, he’s arguably the single most important music artist since they started recording artists because no one changed things more than he did,” he told Howard before adding some of his career choices, including “shlocky movies,” put a shadow on his legacy. “His talent was at a level that’s almost incomparable … but unfortunately, it’s mixed with a lot of things where people don’t see the talent because he just comes across as a personality.”
The Howard Stern Show, which airs on SiriusXM channel Howard 100, is broadcast live Mondays through Wednesdays starting at 7 AM, ET. The full show is also available on the SiriusXM app.
More information on The Smashing Pumpkins’ appearance on The Howard Stern Show here. Video clips below courtesy of SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show.
The Smashing Pumpkins have announced their 26-date North American The World Is A Vampire Tour. Produced by Live Nation, the tour is set to start on Friday, July 28 at The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.
The tour will feature special guests Interpol, Stone Temple Pilots and Rival Sons as support on various dates, as well as some of the world’s biggest champions from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), who will be competing in most cities.
The World Is A Vampire Tour has already sold-out 30k plus capacity shows in Mexico City this year, as well in cities across Australia this spring, and is set to expand to more countries in the future. Artist pre-sale is underway. General on-sale starts Friday, March 31 at 10 AM, local. For more details, head here.
"I grew up in a world where I needed to know bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure existed, it meant there was a place for people like me to hang out and belong. That's what The World Is A Vampire is about. Bringing back that sense of community. If you don't fit in, you belong here. It's about having a shared experience and respecting others, but ultimately having fun. A true alternative festival, where all the self-proclaimed weirdos and outsiders of the world can get together and have a party.” – Billy Corgan
Tour dates:
July
28 - The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan - Las Vegas, NV
30 - The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan - Las Vegas, NV
August
1 - USANA Amphitheatre - Salt Lake City, UT*
3 - Shoreline Amphitheatre - Mountain View, CA*
5 - White River Amphitheatre - Auburn, WA*
6 - Hayden Homes Amphitheater - Bend, OR*
7 - Toyota Amphitheatre - Wheatland, CA*
9 - FivePoint Amphitheatre - Irvine, CA*
10 - North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre - Chula Vista, CA*
11 - Yaamava’ Resort & Casino - Highland, CA**
13 - Isleta Amphitheater - Albuquerque, NM^
15 - Dos Equis Pavillion - Dallas, TX^
16 - Walmart AMP - Rogers, AR^
17 – The Orion Amphitheater - Huntsville, AL^
19 - iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre - West Palm Beach, FL^
20 - MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre - Tampa, FL^
22 - PNC Music Pavilion - Charlotte, NC^
24 - PNC Bank Arts Center - Holmdel, NJ^
25 - Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion - Gilford, NH^
30 - Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater - Wantagh, NY^
31 - Jiffy Lube Live - Bristow, VA^
September
2 - Budweiser Stage - Toronto, ON^
3 - Canadian Tire Centre - Ottawa, ON^
6 - Pine Knob Music Theatre - Clarkston, MI^^
8 - FirstBank Amphitheater - Franklin, TN^
9 - Ruoff Music Center - Noblesville, IN^
^ w/ Interpol & Rival Sons
* w/ Stone Temple Pilots & Rival Sons
** w/ Stone Temple Pilots
^^ w/ Interpol
(Photo - Paul Elledge)
