“I Lost My Greatest Rival”

Billy Corgan and the latter Kurt Cobain undoubtedly two of the greatest songwriters of the early ’90s alternative-rock revolution. In a new interview, the Smashing Pumpkins The frontman likened it to a competition, calling the Nirvana brain of his “greatest rival.”

Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Corgan chose a sports analogy when discussing his reaction to Cobain’s death in 1994, while also reflecting on the Smashing Pumpkins’ legacy compared to other greats of the era, including Nirvana.

“I want the Pumpkins to stand at the top of the heap for our generation,” Corgan said in the interview. “If that means I have to write 800 songs to do it, I’ll do it. I’m not ashamed of that. I always say, Kurt is the most talented person of our generation. Kurt has so much talent. It’s scary. Like it’s at the level of John Lennon’s talent, where you’re like, ‘how do you get all this talent?’ Or Prince, right? But Kurt wasn’t there either. So I looked around, I was like, ‘Okay, well, I can beat some of them for sure.'”

Regarding Kurt’s death, Corgan continued, “When Kurt died, I cried because my greatest enemy was defeated. I want to beat the best. I don’t want to win the championship because it’s just me and a bunch of gabronis, to use a wrestling term. It’s like, Michael Jordan, maybe the greatest sports competitor I’ll ever see in my life — I mean, you want to talk about an alpha. That person wants to win the valet tip. You know what I mean?”

Corgan went on to mention other acts like Deftones’ Chino Moreno (“the real deal”), Radiohead (who “thought the world before every band on the planet”), and U2, explaining also a story of how he gave advice for the latter Everything You Can’t Let Go of LP that seems to be used by Bono and company.

“So, I was in Dublin, around 2000, and I was going to visit Bono at his house,” Corgan said. “We stayed up all night, and in the morning, for some reason, he and I were the only people, and he said, ‘I want to play with you. We have to get out of the car, because I don’t want to wake the house.’”

He continued: “So he and I were freezing in the driveway, and he came in and he played me what turned out to be the ‘It’s a Beautiful Day’ album, and it wasn’t all the way there, but it was like there. And he said, ‘Tell me I’m really what you think.’ I said, ‘You really want me to give my opinion?’ And I told him what I thought, and they actually used my advice, and he informed me later, ‘Hey, we used your advice.’

Corgan will hit the road in North America this summer with the Smashing Pumpkins in the band “The World Is A Vampire Tour,” with support from Interpol, Stone Temple Pilots, and Rival Sons. Tickets for upcoming Pumpkins dates is here.

Below you can watch Billy Corgan’s full interview for Apple Music.





Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *