Billy Corgan speaks of confidential meetings and supernatural experiences.
Billy Corgan claimed. The White House under President George W. Bush tried to recruit him for an influence campaign. What’s in the story?
Podcast as a stage for explosive revelations
The Smashing Pumpkin singer’s statement came on his podcast “The Magnificent Others” near the end of an episode released on New Year’s Eve 2025, in which Corgan hosted author and occult historian Conrad Flynn. Flynn is no stranger to alternative media circles: He recently appeared on the “Tucker Carlson Show” and – to the irritation of many – spoke about the experimental cult band Nurse With Wound. The fact that two characters who are just as open to podcasts as they are to esoteric digressions meet is hardly surprising.
“It was like ‘Eyes Wide Shut'”
What is all the more astonishing, however, is how casually Corgan placed his claim. The musician explained that over the years he had been “approached by various parts of the US government” to participate in matters “that went far beyond my competence”. He sat in a room with people and asked himself why they were even talking to him. “It was like ‘Eyes Wide Shut,’” says Corgan.
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When Flynn asked what specifically had been discussed, Corgan responded: “I won’t tell you.” He based this on previous experiences, such as his much-quoted story about an encounter with an alleged shape-shifter, which he had once described to Howard Stern. He was then followed at airports by strangers who asked him to tell the story again. “All I can say is that I have experienced supernatural things,” he said, “and that parts of the US government have tried to contact me because they somehow wanted to use my influence – which is not exactly great – for their own purposes.”
Two confidential invitations during the Bush era
According to Billy Corgan, there were two invitations to the White House for meetings that were “basically confidential.” When asked under which presidency this happened, he replied: “It was during the Bush era.” The fact that he was not a Republican himself shocked him further. He emphasized that he grew up in a democratically influenced state. What exactly the White House might have wanted from him remains unclear.
Corgan’s reputation as a narrator of unusual experiences does nothing to defuse the story. The shapeshifter episode that he described for Howard Stern in 2017 was accompanied by further details a year later. Flynn took up the topic in the podcast and pointed to a supposedly long tradition of such phenomena in pop music – from Judee Sill to Diamanda Galás to William S. Burroughs.
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