Billy Corgan didn’t mince words about how the music business does not produce happy people. Loudwire transcribed some of his chat on WFAN’s Boomer & Geo show, in which he explained, “I don’t know if you can be happy in the music business because the music business is sort of designed to mess with your head. I think the music business in particular has been very late to the game with mental health and artists.”
The Smashing Pumpkins leader went on to say, “We lost Jimi Hendrix at 27 years old to addiction and think of all the music that Jimi Hendrix didn’t make. We’re still talking about Jimi Hendrix 54 or 55 years after his death. I get lost in there because it’s so sad to me. Think of all the people my generation has lost just to addiction and suicide alone. It is a travesty that there wasn’t more support systems around those artists. I don’t mean to throw shade at anybody. I just know how the business works. It’s one of exploitation.”
Corgan went on to talk about how he feels lucky to remain one of rock’s survivors: “I feel blessed, so that’s the start of every sentence. I would just like people to say he made it through, and if that inspired them to try harder, great. I’m not trying to be that role model, but I don’t want to be on the other end of the casualty list.”
Smashing Pumpkins and Jane’s Addiction kick off their joint North American tour on October 2nd at Dallas’ American Airlines Center.
SIDE NOTES
- The latest Smashing Pumpkins project — Atum (pronounced “autumn”), which will drop in April 2023.
- The “three-act rock opera” is part of the trilogy that follows 1995’s Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness and 2000’s Machina/Machines Of God.
- The new 33-track collection will be “revealed chronologically each week on Corgan’s podcast, Thirty-Three with William Patrick Corgan.”
CHECK IT OUT: Smashing Pumpkins’ 2022 video for “Beguiled”: