Quotes by Billy Corgan: Page 2 - Music - http://maxpages.com/sadpeterpan/By_Billy_Corgan_Page

"Well, I had this really traumatic experience when I was fifteen. I got shrunk and I had to live in a thimble, and let me tell you that it was hard. The food was plentiful and all, but the attack of the rats got to be a bit much. It came out of the experiences of that time." - on inspiration for the song "Stumbleine"

"If a man can't keep himself from doing those kinds of things with everything to lose, his band, his life, his status, his economic and whatever future... If he can't stop himself and pick himself up from that, then what's gonna stop him? Us? Us three suburbanites? It ain't gonna happen." - from MTV Year In Rock 96

"We're like a really nice drink. We help people get through the day--we make life a little sunnier. I don't think we have any profound effect. If anybody has had a profound effect, it's the Beatles, and their effect is still minimal. There are things in the world way more important than music. Family is 50 times more important than music."

"We can look you in the eye and talk to you about life, heart, love rock'n'roll, whatever, but we do not have the moral authority to tell people how to vote or what to do with their bodies. We are just a rock band."

"My view of the world is always tempered by the fact that there are people who are less fortunate than I am."

"Life is everything and nothing all at once."

"The simplest way that I can understand therapy is that we're born a certain way, we're taught to be something different, and we spend our whole lives trying to unravel it and ultimately align ourselves with who we really are. Life, experiences, traumas -- whatever -- they all add up to make you some altered version of what you are. So there's this battle that goes on between what you are and what you become, and it's been very important for me to unravel what I was taught to be or what I became. and to draw a direct parallel to music -- the closer I get back to being who I really am, the stronger the music gets, because I think what talent I do have is connected to that person, it's not a manipulative process, it's intuitive. You can learn about chords and guitars, but there's a piece of you that makes it individual, and it's been a slow process for me to become whatever it is that I'm supposed to be."

"In my Corgan brain, I've decided it's almost as simple as 'All you need is love.' Almost."

"People do devastating things out of love and devotion. And if some guy rides a bus and blows himself up and twenty people around him because he loves God so much, it doesn't mean he's wrong or right. You can't just turn your head away from anything that you find repulsive, because in anything that has power, there has to be devotion."

"We are the most beloved and hated band in the world."- during a concert

"We're the worst band in America... That makes us the best."

"We are a bit preposterous, but we're also a really special band."

"I've always believed that we could reach past genre -- we didn't ride the grunge coat-tails; we've always been on our terms."

"We weren't like mates who decided to form a band. The other three met me because they were interested in being in the band that I was starting."

"People always seemed to pay attention to us. I have no idea why -- there was just a presence between the four people or something."

"The world is not set up for a band like the Smashing Pumpkins -- it's set up for bands who can play the angle better."

"There's a lot of chemistry in the band that the outside world could never witness. In our band, D'arcy is the moral conscience -- it's really hard to do something if D'arcy thinks its fucked."

"Well, we have brought certain things upon ourselves. I've certainly brought things upon us with my mouth."

"We were just a little immature in the past. I think we actually wanted to create difficult situations for ourselves just to be able to use that emotion for stimulation."

"Now we've come to the realization that we don't have to live in a virtual state of anarchy in order to make the music happen."

"As we've gotten older, it's the diversity among us that's made us more of a compete entity. We're not like an untuned motor anymore."

"I still believe that we are a blessed, lucky group of people. We are not your tragedy band."

"I don't know if God would agree with me, but believing in God is kind of unimportant when compared to believing in yourself. Because if you go with the idea that God gave you a mind and an ability to judge things, then he would want you to believe in yourself and not worry about believing in him. By believing in yourself you will come to the conclusion that will point to something."

"My role models were Judas Priest and Ozzy Ozbourne."

"There's always going to be the bands that change where the river flows... And there's always going to be people who get in their boats to ride down the river, who'll go as far as they can until someone changes its course again. It's upsetting to see people not having the guts to be their own band and riding someone else's little trip, but it's just the way that it is and it will always be that way. It will never change because it's about money and it's about power."

"People act like Nirvana invented grunge; they just took it and personified it."

"I draw minimum influences these days. I've created my own self-sustaining machine. There's a point where you go beyond your influences. You break away. It's like moving out of your parents' house or something."

"This whole '90's thing is like this negative brand. Throwing a tantrum. But what it was, was energy that said, 'I can't take this the way that it is.' That kind of rebellion against suburban America. And that's why I think [Marilyn] Manson's such an important artist right now, because in essence, he represents the next, the next generation, which even more disenchanted and disconnected."

"...What people miss about [Marilyn] Manson is that he is just reflecting, he's an artist, people want to focus that energy on him, but it's not really him, it's really about you. So for every guy sitting there with a beer and a .45 in his belt, Manson is just speaking to that end of society. He's speaking as an artist. He's not speaking as himself, and that's where people get really lost with Manson."

"Courtney Love is one of the most powerful live females that I've ever seen."

"I have a very down opinion of musicians. Because most musicians' heads aren't on straight. It's usually about technique, when it should be about creativity."

"Most musicians suck."

"The thing that makes it all worth it is when someone comes up and says, 'I had a really hard time in my life and your album really helped me.' As long as that happens, all the idiots in the world and all the stupid press can say what they want to; it just doesn't matter."

"Some people want to express ... apathy with noise and brutality... It's the want to transcend all that, to find some deeper essence in life, that drives me."

"I'm like the Fugitive, running from the one-armed indie-rock community" - on the early Chicago scene

"My inspiration has been to translate what I see in total. People often ask me why I write sad songs, but life is sad and life is happy. So, it seems to me that I should write happy songs and sad songs."

A Fax from Billy to a Reporter Who Said the Pumpkins Sucked:

"I'm glad that I'm such a good rhymer,
Better than being a social climber,
Just because I'm a bit brighter,
Than some fucking writer."

"When we're ready to end the band, we'll end the band. It started on our terms, and it will certainly end on them."

"We've worked out a plan where eventually we'll replace ourselves with machines. So roughly by the year 2002 we'll sit at home and the machine will go on tour."

"I hope we mature gracefully, but right now I don't really care because thinking about the future and thinking about the past is really away of avoiding the present. And the present is really good right now, and I'm very lucky; we're very lucky."

"I have always said that if one person leaves, that's the end of the band. I'm not going to carry on with a faux Jimmy or faux D'Arcy. No fucking way."

"We used to say that if anybody left the band, that would be it. Then we realized that we still have a lot between us, and we couldn't really pull that trigger."

"I'm not going to die glamorously. I'll probably be eating a Twinkie, take a bite, and fall over."

"You can only be this high-powered mojo rock band for so long, then you just can't look people in the eye. So, we've projected our own demise."

"I'm looking forward to some kind of well-coordinated Floyd future, perhaps even a floating pig of our own." - from Mojo Magazine

"All we need is creativity."

"I'm about to take the stupid shirt off... but the band won't let me."

Kurt Loder: "Will you be growing your hair back soon?"
Billy: "Yes... But only through the ears."

"Well, what we normally do, is every city we go to, we hire a fifteen year old boy and we turn it up until he starts to make a funny face, and then we turn it up about ten notches louder then that." - explaining how they decide how loud a concert should be

"I think it's probably because we didn't do dumb things like, 'Wave your hands in the air' that we suffered a little, but I would rather suffer and not be a fool." - on playing live

"Our concerts have it's moments when it's stupid, where it's funny, little cheerleading moments, and there's moments when we are just totally crushing the audience."

"You see all those empty seats? That's not who we play for -- we play for you. I want you to remember, we won't forget you -- so don't you forget about us." - to diehard fans who stayed at a concert for "Silverfuck"

"See, we don't normally play this song; we thought it would be kinda fun to play it, but obviously we don't know our own song, so... We'll just play some Bush or Stone Temple Pilots or something... [band plays short "Smells Like Teen Spirit" riff] ... Usually we wait until the end of the concert to apologize for sucking, but I will apologize now. I'm very sorry -- we suck." - during the 1/26/97 concert

"Are you all ready to have a rockin' mashed potato time?" - during a concert

"I guess we should apologize now for making you all miss the Super Bowl. If it makes you feel any better, um, in the second quarter the players decided that they were all going to choose the path of non-violence and they all gave up football. So the game was suspended anyway so you're not missing anything." - talking to fans at a concert on the same day as the Super Bowl

"Remember, Nagroc is Corgan spelt backwards. Don't you fucking forget that!" - during a concert

"I cut all my fucking hair off, thats what i did. It seems like a very obvious thing, but this idiot can't seem to see it," - during a concert after someone asked where his hair went

"I said rat in a cage, not monkey from a fucking wire." - after seeing a guy hanging off the balcony after "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" duing a concert

"We are proud to be the first full services alternative rock band. What does that mean to you? You want service, we'll give it to you....If you want to hear an Oasis song, we'll play one." - during a concert

"My favorite are the people who sit down during the songs they don't like and stand up during the ones they do- those are my favorite people. Go ahead and sit down cause you're not gonna like this one so... If you're bored already, I would, I would just go. You've already heard most of the hits so...We'll keep trying though." - during a concert

"Alright, dancers...and you are dancers. Don't disappoint me or I will hurt you. James will now read you your rights...and a small disclaimer insuring the Smashing Pumpkins against any harm or injury should anyone fall." - talking to the fans picked to dance on stage during "1979" at a concert

"Before Thanksgiving, the turkey on your tables was a happy, free turkey, who could think and do as he wished. Just think about that after you're done eating on Thanksgiving." - talking to his fans during a concert around Thanksgiving

"There's been someone up here screaming 'Landslide' for the whole show... Normally we don't play 'Landslide,' but on occasion we've been known to play it... So since this person's been screaming it all show long... That just about kills the chances of me playing it tonight, or ever again." - during a concert

"How cute. A Big Bird doll with a zero on his chest... I am against the... disgrace of innocent Sesame Street dolls... I was molested by big bird himself once... When I saw that thing flying at me, it brought back alot of painful memories... I can't tell you what he did to me... But, he does have that long beak..." - reacting to when a fan threw a Big Bird stuffed animal at him during a concert

"I wish it was all gone and we could just go back to being the most killer band in the world."

"We're just gonna throw out the rule book and start over." - on plans for the band after Jimmy's dismissal

Q: Was the band lacking something without Jimmy then?

Billy: "We noticed the absence of a maniacal laugh."

"I get more out of life just being myself, by just being a human being. Not by being a rock star, not by being whatever. Sometimes I act like a jerk, but I think people respect me for being myself. That's the ultimate thing about the Smashing Pumpkins."

"You're in Pumpkin World, buddy. Where nothing is as it seems."

"We don't have a production company. We have a record label."

"It's my girlfriends; I had to pry it out of her to use it for the album." - on the Sacred Heart on the back of Gish

"When I watch a puppet show, I'm not watching the puppets -- I'm trying to see who's pulling the strings."

"I've thought many times, 'I can't write this,' but on my own little planet I found the courage to write it because it was true. I put aside fear of Father being angry with me. It's hard though; the world pales in comparison with the stature of a parent. In some small-consolation way, my parents feel I'm helping people by giving them something to identify with. They feel proud in a sort of reverse way. My mom's proud of the fact that lots of kids look up to me."

"This is war, motherfucker, and don't you forget it. It's us versus them, and if your giving in your giving up." - from the introduction to The Aeroplane Flies High box set

"If practice makes perfect and nobody's perfect then why practice?"

"Stay in school. Lie to your teachers, but stay in school."

"All I ever wanted was everything and all I've gotten is shit." - from "I Am One" in Vieuphoria

"What goes on between a person and himself and the universe is their own damned business. There's no way we could ever cheapen it."

"If you hear one of our songs on the radio and it's chopped up -- you call that radio sation, and tell them they're fucking stupid!"

"Hey Hey Hey...You're right."- answering to a fan who said, "Hey Hey Hey... You're Billy Corgan!"

"I'd probably be the guy your brother buys pot from or something." - during an interview when asked what he'd be doing if he wasn't playing music

"I fucking told you that this town sucks! Did I fucking tell you this town sucks? I fucking told you. I didn't want to play here, and now these fuckers want my fucking autograph!" - in Tulsa '94

"I'm Irish and I was born on St. Patrick's day. I'm lucky sevens."

"If I had spent fourteen months in a small room with Jesus, I'd want to fist fight with him."

"At this point in time I actually don't know who I am."

"We are, we have been, and always will be the Smashing Pumpkins."

"Everything about life makes me lonely."

"Wow. That's it?!?! That's all we get? We won all these awards and that's all we get?!?! Beavis and Butt-head got more time then us!" - during an interview at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards Post-Show

"Would I be in these silver pants?" - on SP Videography referring to if he wasn't a rock star

"Once a pumpkin, Always a pumpkin."

"Me and my father have the same slouch and walk. I've been to family gatherings, after dinner, everyone goes into the living room, there will be eight people all sitting in the same Corgan way."

"Shave your head, wear a 'ZERO' shirt. Take away your identity. What do you have? You still have yourself."

"There's a lot of UFO sightings in New Orleans, which isn't really too surprising. There's a lotta crazy people there. The people there lack the intelligence to know what they are seeing, so that's why the UFO's go there."

"I'm no messiah, I'm just some dumb Mid-West guy."

"Been there, done that, seen it, heard it, pissed on it." - from a SPIN article

"Can I ask a question? Has the interview started? Is James in this interview? I mean we're not doing this interview unless everyone's in on it. I got another double album to write so hurry up." - before an interview

Interviewer: "Billy, there's alot of on-line discussion about the books of Elie Weisel and your lyrics. Was their a definite influence?"
Billy: "I've heard this and I have absolutley no idea. You know what it is? He wrote this one thing called 'Mayonaise.' So it starts there. You know how I got the title "Mayonaise"? I looked in my refrigerator."

"I was never violent, but I had that streak underneath me all along. People who have known me all my life, when they first saw us play, they were like, 'Holy fuck,' because I'd turn into this beastie. They had never seen that side of me, but I knew it was there."

Sign Guestbook

View Guestbook

gamefreak3730@aol.com

Visitors: 00143

Page Updated Thu Jul 27, 2006 11:43pm EDT