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William Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr. (born March
17, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois, United
States|U.S.A.) is an American vocalist, guitarist,
and songwriter best known for his work in the
now-disbanded alternative rock band The Smashing
Pumpkins. The Pumpkins were one of alternative
rock's biggest acts, known for their complex
layered sound, Corgan's scathing guitar and whiny
vocals, and making use of elaborate and evocative
fantasy imagery. The Smashing Pumpkins produced
five major albums, including the widely-acclaimed
and commercially successful albums Siamese Dream
(1993) and the follow-up double album Mellon
Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995).

==Early years==
Corgan moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg,
Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The
Marked, named for the noticeable birthmarks of
Billy and Ron Roesing, the drummer. The band
lasted for around nine months and disbanded, with
Billy returning to Chicago to live with his
father.

While working at a record store there, he met up
with guitarist James Iha through a friend. He then
met bassist D'Arcy Wretzky at a local show and
soon formed The Smashing Pumpkins. The trio began
to play together at local clubs with only a drum
machine for percussion. The band tried to book a
show at the Cabaret Metro, a notable Chicago
venue. Metro owner Joe Shanahan refused to let the
band play until they found a live drummer. The
band was introduced to jazz fusion drummer Jimmy
Chamberlin by a mutual friend. Chamberlin did not
align with the band at first, but thought they had
potential--thus he joined the group. The Metro
show on April 10 1988 was the band's first show
with the full lineup. The Pumpkins continued to
have a close relationship with the venue, playing
new tracks there frequently and playing the band's
final show at the Metro more than a decade later
December 2 2000 . The new band fused diverse
threads such as psychedelic rock and hard rock
(music)|hard rock into a distinctive sound on
their inaugural album, Gish (1991).

==Popular success==

The Pumpkins signed to major-label Virgin Records
to record Siamese Dream. The Pumpkins became known
for their elaborate production techniques,
layering dozens of different tracks over one
another with a wide variety of effects. Siamese
Dream's "Soma" uses over 40 guitar tracks alone.
The band became known for internal drama during
this period, with Corgan frequently characterized
in the music press as a control freak who
reportedly went so far as to unilaterally erase
other band members' studio tracks and rerecord his
own performances over them. The reality of the
situation was Corgan had developed a deep clinical
depression|depression and worked overtime for both
Gish and Siamese Dream, recording some of the
guitar and bass tracks for the former and almost
all  for the latter. Guitarist Iha and bassist
Wretzky were losing interest in the band during
that time period due to a messy break-up. Corgan
even went on record saying if Siamese Dream didn't
sell well, he would break up the band. The album
was well received by critics, and the songs "Today
(song)|Today" and "Disarm" became smash hits, with
the accompanying music videos receiving heavy
airplay on MTV.

Their 1995 followup effort, the massive 2 disc set
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was even
more wildly successful, spawning a string of hit
singles and eventually a box set (The Aeroplane
Flies High, 1996) of songs recorded during the
Mellon Collie sessions which were cut from the
album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy
awards that year and would eventually sell several
million copies, making it the best selling double
album of all time. With the expanded resources now
at their disposal, production values became even
more elaborate, and the band branched out beyond
their hard rock roots, featuring, for example,
dense orchestral accompaniment on "Tonight,
Tonight", ethereal pieces leaning towards
rock-electronica ("1979 (song)|1979"), and a soft
piano intro track. The album also included a
number of more traditional metal-driven
guitar-based tracks, such as the first single,
"Bullet with Butterfly Wings", and "Zero
(song)|Zero". Their appearance on Saturday Night
Live on November 11, 1995 to promote this material
also was the debut appearance of Corgan's shaved
head, which he has maintained consistently ever
since (as of 2005). Previously, Corgan had, in
typical rockstar fashion, varied his hair styles
fairly often.

During the album's tour, the band was plagued by
Chamberlin's heroin addiction. On July 12, 1996,
Chamberlin and touring keyboardist Jonathan
Melvoin overdosed in a hotel room. Chamberlin
survived, but Melvoin did not. The Pumpkins were
forced to fire their disgraced drummer. They
completed the tour with Filter (band)|Filter
drummer Matt Walker (drummer)|Matt Walker and The
Frogs (band)|Frogs keyboardist Dennis Flemion, but
the band missed the intense energy that
Chamberlin's drumming provided.

==Later works==
Their next effort, 1998's Adore, was undertaken
with drum machines and studio drummers in place of
Chamberlin, and consisted mostly of subdued
material.  Corgan's mother Martha passed away from
cancer during the making of the record, and in the
absence of Chamberlin—Corgan's longtime
creative foil—the proceedings took on a
halting, confused tone.  Adore earned high praise
from some critics, but other critics and most fans
thought the band strayed too far from its
strengths.

Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999,
bolstering its confidence but not returning it to
commercial prominence. 2000 saw MACHINA/The
Machines of God, a concept album on which the band
deliberately played to their public image; critics
were again divided.   After the recording of
MACHINA, bassist D'Arcy quit the band and was
replaced by former Hole (band)|Hole bassist
Melissa Auf der Maur. Only 25 copies were made of
the band's last album as it was recorded and
released by the band and not by their label -
Virgin, who had no interest in releasing another
Pumpkins album. The 25 copies of MACHINA II/The
Friends and Enemies of Modern Music consisted of 3
10" EPs and a Double 12" LP. These were
distributed via FedEx to the chosen 25 fans, with
some instructed to release the songs for free in
MP3 format on the Internet as soon as possible.
The Smashing Pumpkins split up later in 2000 and
played their last show on December 2 of that year
at the Metro in Chicago.

In 2001, Corgan formed Zwan with Chamberlin and
guitarists Matt Sweeney and David Pajo, with
former A Perfect Circle bassist Paz Lenchantin
joining in 2002.  Zwan's focus on sunny, melodic
pop-rock surprised fans and critics, and its album
Mary Star of the Sea (written in and inspired by
Key West, Florida), garnered generally positive
reviews.  In March 2003, Corgan and Chamberlin
performed with Jazz vocalist Kurt Elling at "The
Waltz", an annual benefit for homeless and abused
teenagers. Together, they performed a version of
Jimi Hendrix|Jimi Hendrix's "Freedom".  During an
interview with WGN-9 on September 15 that same
year, Corgan announced that Zwan had officially
disbanded.

On February 17, 2004, Corgan posted a bitter
message on his blog in which he blamed guitarist
James Iha for the sudden breakup of The Smashing
Pumpkins four years prior. He also referred to
bassist D'arcy Wretzky as "a mean spirited drug
addict." On June 3, 2004 he posted an apology of
sorts to Iha, writing that "i love Iha very, very
much...the depth of my hurt is only matched by the
depth of my gratitude".

In another recent post, Corgan insulted his former
Zwan bandmates, claiming they had been obnoxiously
self-conscious about their "indie cred" to the
point of hurting those around them. Poking fun at
their indie stance, he called them "poseurs". 
Sounding both enraged and hurt, he declared them
to be "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.

Even through two band break-ups, Corgan and
Chamberlin remain very good friends to this day.
Corgan has made a guest appearance on Chamberlin's
solo album Life Begins Again under the name The
Jimmy Chamberlin Complex.

Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of
poetry, in late 2004. Blinking with Fists debuted
on the New York Times' Best Seller list. It was
also the best-selling poetry book in the United
States in its first week of release. Corgan is
currently pursuing a solo career and recently
released TheFutureEmbrace June 21st, 2005.  In a
full page ad in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago
Tribune on the same day, Corgan has revealed that
he wants to reform the Smashing
Pumpkins.http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nation
world/chi-0506210240jun21,1,5197990.story?coll=chi
-newsnationworld-hed
Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted
Billy Corgan's offer for a reunion.
http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2005/06/2830.cfm

In addition to performing, Corgan has produced
albums for Ric Ocasek, Hole (band)|Hole, The Frogs
(band) |The Frogs, and Catherine.  He wrote the
song "Eye" for the movie Lost Highway (1997) and
has produced three soundtracks for the movies
Ransom (movie)|Ransom (1996), Stigmata
(movie)|Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002).  He has
performed vocals and guitar for New Order and
Marianne Faithfull. Billy was also featured on
Blindside's 2004 album About a Burning Fire, in
the song "Hooray, It's LA".

==Solo Discography==

===Album===

* TheFutureEmbrace - (21 June 2005) #31 US

===Single===

* "Walking Shade" - (13 June 2005) #74 UK

==External links==
* http://www.billycorgan.com Billy Corgan's
Official Site
* http://myspace.com/billycorgan Billy's MySpace -
Includes autobiographical reflections of Corgan's
childhood.
* http://billycorgan.livejournal.com An extensive
archive of Billy's blog entries
* http://www.billy-corgan.net Billy-Corgan.com -
huge site with plenty of downloadable media.
* http://billycorgan.info BillyCorgan.Info -
latest news.
* http://www.blamo.org Siva - site about Billy
Corgan, Zwan, and the Smashing Pumpkins.
* http://www.starla.org Starla.org - Index of
Smashing Pumpkins Websites
* http://www.corganmedia.com Corgan Media.com -
Current News, Huge SP/Zwan Downloads Database
*http://www.zwanmusic.org/newsarchive/167.html
Waltz Benefit 2003 - Billy Corgan, Jimmy
Chamberlin, and Kurt Elling
* http://zwan.mg2.org The Zwan/B0lly Database
*
http://www.hotlyricz.com/B/billycorgan/billycorgan
index.html Billy Corgan Lyrics Index