Billy Corgan
I have a saying, which is, 'Crazy is good for business.' I think rock and roll really is about being a bit crazy.
I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan.
It just doesn't work without the others.
You will never see the four original Pumpkins on stage ever again, unless it's a Hall of Fame thing. But you would never see a tour. There's so much damage, there's no way.
James, that's a bad situation. I'm not saying it's not repairable, but it's pretty far. When you go from being in one of the best bands in the world to some cover band... as far as I'm concerned, he was playing down at the pub.
My pat line about the Cubs and payroll is that the amount of merchandise the Cubs would sell off a world series championship would more than cover for a big payroll.
I lay a lot of blame at the feet of Dusty Baker for not being more strict about fundamentals, which I think would give the team a stronger day-to-day identity.
I believe that if the Tribune company ever tries to close down Wrigley Field that you will have a protest from every corner of the globe.
Saturn Return is just the return of your planets to their original position.
I didn't grow up with my mother, and so losing her for real was like, some sort of latent childhood, some sort of unresolved issue. When she left for real, it was sort of like, I was done.
I'd reached a point where there was a direct conflict between what I was trying to be and who I really was.
I was trying to be this person who is cool, eternally rocking.
I'm a really honest person.
Ultimately, running a band is about the relationships you have with people.
I think long and hard about what it is I'm actually trying to do, and then I kind of have to narrow my focus into that. If I don't, I'm too all over the place.
Well, I'm known as a guitar-rock guy, you know? You're not supposed to play with synthesizers. This is not in the rulebook.
I don't wanna play this kind of cartoon character anymore.
The ideology of the Smashing Pumpkins was ultimately more valuable than the music of the Smashing Pumpkins. That's what critics can't put their finger on.
A good artist is willing to die many times over. What's funny is, I've died so many times.
To re-embrace what I once loved about music has been a warming process for me, because it's a good, earned feeling now.
When you actually like each other, it translates to the music.
You're in a band 24 hours a day.
In my case I don't mind playing a character that irritates people or makes people question my sanity.
Most people don't know that wrestling came out of the circus.
I've been too productive for too long, and despite what anybody wants to strip away from me, I am influential. I am.
My father was a guitar player, and I was raised with a super high standard of what good guitar playing was.
I always thought Kurt Cobain was the perfect embodiment of the great alternative guitar player.
There's a lot of days where you feel forgotten.
I went to see a shaman. He put his hands on me, and I cried like a baby for an hour.
I grew up in a house of no love or emotion - it kind of sticks with you.
The desire to hit a big home run is dominating the music business.
Rock & roll is not about what you play, it's about how you play it.
I don't have any sentimental notion about how people are going to remember me.
I'm prepared to spend the rest of my life playing clubs, if that means I'm playing music that I believe in.
I do not think wrestling is going to save the world.
There is something mighty suspicious about declaring an emergency for something that has yet to show itself to be a grand pandemic.
Soon you won't even have the choice to live or die as you wish!
Like any good tree that one would hope to grow, we must set our roots deep into the ground so that what is real will prosper in the Light of Love.
Hey, Christian rock, if you want to be good, stop copying U2. U2 already did it. You know what I mean? There's a lot of U2-esque Christian rock.
If I worried about appearances, I wouldn't be at Cubs games.
I don't have to play by these rules or do these things... I can actually have my own kind of version.
I was brought up Roman Catholic. I'm not even baptized.
I walked away from going to church when I was 8. I didn't set foot in another church until I was 28.
If I have resistance to something, it means there's something wrong. The resistance to me is a sign of fear.
For someone who's had the level of success I've had, there's been very little critical review of my work, which is pretty fascinating.
I was raised a Christian, but I wouldn't call myself a Christian now. I think when I was younger it was easier to focus on the negative, nihilist vision... this is sort of picking up on the other half of the body, which is God and white light.
I'm definitely responsible for coming in with some basic chord changes, or ideas. Everybody in the band looks to me to come up with the basic seed, so it's not very productive to come in with nothing.
In the beginning, though, I have to admit that I did have a chip on my shoulder. I did want to prove everyone wrong. But after I went through the process and came out the other side, it wasn't about anyone else.
The deeper I get into my life as a musician, I'm discovering that it becomes less and less about other people, and more about what I want to do. And that's a good place to be.