Billy Corgan live at a Cindy Lauper charity event on December 3, 2016 in New York
Photo: WireImage, Mark Sagliocco. All rights reserved.
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Billy Corgan used a recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show to speak about his experience with criticism. He commented on his tendency to take negative feedback very seriously and to feel criticism disproportionately. He also revealed that many music industry workers disappointed him during his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. He also linked the impact of these events on his personal well-being to the experiences of his youth. Corgan has previously openly addressed the physical and psychological violence he experienced in his childhood home.
The 56-year-old began the digression into his psyche with the words: “Even when we [The Smashing Pumpkins] were successful, there was constant criticism. […] Maybe there was a lot of praise, but I didn’t hear that. Because if you are in this mindset, then you only hear the criticism. Like when someone tells you something for five minutes and during that time they say something wrong and that’s all you remember later. That could have been my whole life.”
Stern then steers the conversation to past experiences that might explain the severity of this unconscious pattern of behavior. Corgan confirms the connection. “When your own parents tell you you’re an idiot and some guy comes along 15 years later and calls you an idiot too — and he’s the manager of this band and this band and this band and they’re all successful — you think that maybe it just is.”
To show Corgan his own appreciation, the presenter then plays “Disarm” from the 1994 album SIAMESE DREAM. He himself calls it a “masterpiece”. But Corgan remembers that no one ever asked him to write another song of this class. But people, fans and insiders alike, would have demanded more and more titles à la “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”. The cynicism that the musician sings there that he is a “rat in a cage” does not escape him in this constellation.
The Smashing Pumpkins are currently releasing the three-act rock opera ATUM, the second part of which has been available since January 31st. ATUM – ACT III will be released on April 21st.
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