Billy Corgan
William
Patrick Corgan Jr. was born in Elk Grove, Illinois on March 17,
1967.
Billy discovered the guitar at the age of 14 when he was at a friend's house. He used the guitar to escape from what he called a "crummy mortal existence." When he was in high school, he was in a band called Lex, but he left because they wanted to play Christian Rock, which was something he was not interested in. When he was 19, he moved to Florida and started the band The Marked, named after the matching birthmarks on his and the drummer's hands. The band was together for about 9 months, but was not at all successful, so Billy quit and moved to Chicago.
It was here, while working in a record store, that he met James Iha. Together they formed The Smashing Pumpkins. They added members D'Arcy Wretzky on bass, and Jimmy Chamberlin on drums, and started out publicly playing local venues. They then received the opportunity to play as the opening band for Jane's Addiction.
In 1991 they released their first
album entitled Gish. They toured to promote the album, and the
band became known for being very eccentric. Corgan, however, was
having serious insecurities about his talents, that by the time they
got back from the tour to promote this album, he was virtually
suicidal. He also found himself with writer's block, which he
was nervous about considering they were under pressure from their
new label, Virgin Records, to get started on their next album.
With Corgan over his depression, and able to write again, the band
began work on Siamese Dream, because of internal problems with the
band, the album was recorded almost entirely by Corgan. The
album was a huge success, debuting on the charts at number 10, and
drew worldwide attention to the band. The album has sold more
than 3 million copies to date. The Smashing Pumpkins went on a
world-wide tour to promote the album. Up until now, the band
didn't seem to play as a group, Corgan was more dominant than the
other members. But, during this tour, the band seemed to make
the change into working as a group.
In 1995 they released Mellon
Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It was a 28 song album penned
by Corgan. The band worked together better than ever, and 3
songs off this album charted in the top 25.
During the tour to promote this album, there were several problems
within the group. Keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died of a drug
overdose, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was thrown out of the band
for his drug abuse. The Pumpkins did continue on with the tour
with new drummer Matt Walker.
In May of 1998, The Smashing Pumpkins released their next album, Adore, and toured to promote the album.
In February of 2000,
the band released Machina: The Machines of God. By this time
there were a lot of rumors circulating about the band breaking up.
Then, in August, the band made the announcement that they would no
longer be together by the end of the year.
In September, the band released its last album together, Machina II: Friends & Enemies of Modern Music. The catch was, it was only available in mp3 format on the internet. It was rumored that Corgan himself, according to fans of the group, pressed 25 copies of the album on two 12-inch vinyl albums and three 10-inch EPs. It is also alleged that Corgan sent the ultra-limited edition release to fans and friends and encouraged them to convert the music into the MP3 format and allow fans of the band to download their own copies.
In 2003 Corgan released a CD with his new band ZWAN entitled "Mary Star Of The Sea". The album features heavy guitar work with Matt Sweeney, Paz Lenchantin, David Pajo and old friend Jimmy Chamberlin on drums.
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Smashing Pumpkins: Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
Performed by Smashing Pumpkins. For guitar and voice.
Format: guitar tablature songbook. With guitar tablature,
standard notation, vocal melody, lyrics, chord names, guitar
chord diagrams, guitar tab glossary, introductory text and
black & white photos. Alternative rock, grunge and pop rock.
240 pages. 9x12 inches. Published by Warner Brothers.
(WB.PG9602) See more info... |