William Patrick Corgan, Jr. (born March 17, 1967 in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, U.S.A.) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Billy Corgan is the vocalist and lead guitarist for alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, who are known for their complex, layered style, and Corgan's distinctive vocals and guitar solos.
Music journalist Jim DeRogatis declared, "Of all the memorable artists and characters that the alternative era produced, [Corgan] was the most traditional rock star, with all of the good and bad traits that implies."[1] When the band broke up in 2000, Corgan went on to form the short-lived Zwan with former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. After releasing a solo album and a collection of poetry, Corgan reformed The Smashing Pumpkins in 2006.
+ HISTORY
Childhood and formative years
Corgan is the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. His parents would have one more child, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. William also fathered a half-brother the same age as Corgan, but Corgan has never found out who he is.[2] His father was soon remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois[3] During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional abuse by his stepmother.[4] Corgan's half-brother, Jesse, was born in 1976. Jesse was afflicted with mild cerebral palsy, Tourette's syndrome, and other disabilities, and Corgan spent a good deal of his youth taking care of and defending him.[5] When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three children would live alone with the stepmother, with both of Corgan's birth parents living separately within an hour's drive.[6]
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in grammar school.[7] On top of being on his Junior High baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game.[7] However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he was only an average athlete, and he decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V.[7] Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used imitation Gibson Les Paul.[7] Corgan Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but refused on-hand instruction because he was skeptical of his son's dedication. Billy Corgan would later claim he is an autodidactic guitarist.[6] His musical interests in his formative years included heavy metal like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus, The Cure, and The Smiths.[8]
Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite a number of grant and scholarship offers from schools including the University of Michigan, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother,[9] Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.[10] Distasteful of the Chicago music scene, Corgan moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked, named for the noticeable birthmarks of Corgan and Ron Roesing, the drummer. The band was not successful and essentially dissolved, leading Corgan to move back to Chicago and live with his father. He soon came up with the name "Smashing Pumpkins" and set out to form a new band.
The Smashing Pumpkins
While working at a record store, Corgan met guitarist James Iha and the two began recording demos in Corgan's father house, described as "doomy little goth-pop records."[11] He then met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with only a drum machine for percussion. The band would soon recruit drummer Jimmy Chamberlin to secure a show at Chicago's Cabaret Metro, where they played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The new band fused diverse threads such as psychedelic rock and heavy metal into a distinctive sound on their inaugural album, Gish (1991). Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, became a huge hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" and a perfectionist because he was said to have often rerecorded Iha and Wretzky's guitar and bass parts on Gish and Siamese Dream. Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today" and "Disarm" became smash hits.
The band's 1995 follow up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was even more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year and would eventually be certified 9 times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching #1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995 to promote this material also was the debut TV appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently ever since (as of 2007). 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 made the decision to fire Chamberlin and would continue as a trio. Their next effort, 1998's Adore, was undertaken with drum machines and studio drummers, and consisted of more subdued material than the band's previous efforts. Adore earned high praise from some critics and many fans, but other critics and most of the more casual listeners thought the band had strayed too far from its strengths, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999, and 2000 saw Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image; critics were again divided, and sales were lower than ever. At the end of the recording for Machina, bassist D'Arcy quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000, the band released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music for free over the internet.
The Smashing Pumpkins split up later in 2000 and played their last show on December 2 of that year at the Cabaret Metro.
Zwan
Later 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 garnered generally positive reviews. Billy and Zwan also contributed tracks to the 2002 film Spun. 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's "Freedom". Despite Zwan's critical success, the band disbanded in mid-2003.
Solo career
Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, commenting, "I no longer want to protect the people I tormented."[12] On February 17, 2004, Corgan posted a bitter message in which he blamed guitarist James Iha for the breakup of The Smashing Pumpkins four years prior. He also referred to bassist D'arcy Wretzky as "a mean spirited drug addict."[13] On June 3, 2004 he posted an apology of sorts to Iha, writing that "i love him very, very much...the depth of my hurt is only matched by the depth of my gratitude".[14] In another 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" and declared them to be "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list and was the best-selling poetry book in the United States in its first week of release.[citation needed]
In 2004, he began a solo music career, initially performing acoustic folk songs related to Chicago history. He abandoned this style in favor of an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace. Released on June 21, 2005 through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies.[15] Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was nowhere near as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours.
Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two most prominent newspapers (The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to reform the Smashing Pumpkins.[16] Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Billy Corgan's offer for a reunion. [1]
On April 20, 2006 the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting.[17]. The band went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Reyes (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the U.S. on July 10, 2007, and debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins have been touring extensively in support of the album.
+ MORE INFORMATIONS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Corgan
Music 4 World - Billy Corgan (Rock) - Biography - William Patrick Corgan, Jr. (born March 17, 1967 in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, U.S.A.) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Billy Corga
