It seems as though Corgan was deeply emotionally troubled for the greater portion of his childhood, mainly due to drug abuse. His online entries, or "confessions" as he chooses to call them, portray a boy yearning for the recognition and approval of his father, and escape from his stepmother. Martha Lutz, Corgan's birth mother, had also been suffering from mental illness. She was eventually committed to a mental instituion for a brief period of time. Other anecdotes Corgan shares through his online journals include learning of a mysterious half-brother, squandering around the Chicagoland area as an aimless teenager, and a detailed account of his courtship with his first wife.
Corgan moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked, named for the noticeable birthmarks of Billy and Ron Roesing, the drummer. The band lasted for around nine months and disbanded, with Billy returning to Chicago to live with his father.
While working at a record store there, he met up with guitarist James Iha through a friend. He then met bassist D'Arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played. Soon after, The Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with only a drum machine for percussion. The band tried to book a show at the Cabaret Metro, a notable Chicago venue. Metro owner Joe Shanahan refused to let the band play until they found a live drummer. The band was introduced to jazz fusion drummer Jimmy Chamberlin by a mutual friend. Chamberlin did not align with the band at first, but thought they had potential--thus he joined the group. The Metro show on October 5, 1988 was the band's first show with the full lineup. The Pumpkins continued to have a close relationship with the venue, playing new tracks there frequently and playing the band's final show at the Metro more than a decade later December 2, 2000 . The new band fused diverse threads such as psychedelic rock and Hard Rock into a distinctive sound on their inaugural album, Gish (1991).
The Pumpkins signed to major-label Virgin Records to record Siamese Dream. The Pumpkins became known for their elaborate production techniques, layering dozens of different tracks over one another with a wide variety of effects. Siamese Dream's "Silverfuck" uses over 40 guitar tracks alone. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a control freak who reportedly went so far as to unilaterally erase other band members' studio tracks and rerecord his own performances over them. The reality of the situation was Corgan had developed a deep depression and worked overtime for both Gish and Siamese Dream, recording some of the guitar and bass tracks for the former and almost all for the latter. Guitarist Iha and bassist Wretzky were losing interest in the band during that time period due to a messy break-up. Corgan even went on record saying if Siamese Dream didn't sell well, he would break up the band. The album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today" and "Disarm" became smash hits, with the accompanying music videos receiving heavy airplay on MTV.
Their 1995 follow up effort, the massive 2 disc set Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was even more wildly successful, spawning a string of hit singles and eventually a box set (The Aeroplane Flies High, 1996) of songs recorded during the Mellon Collie sessions which were cut from the album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year and would eventually sell several million copies, making it one of the best selling double albums of all time. With the expanded resources now at their disposal, production values became even more elaborate, and the band branched out beyond their hard rock roots, featuring, for example, dense orchestral accompaniment on "Tonight, Tonight", ethereal pieces leaning towards rock-electronica ("1979"), and a soft piano intro track. The album also included a number of more traditional metal-driven guitar-based tracks, such as the first single, "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", and "Zero". Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995 to promote this material also was the debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently ever since (as of 2005). Previously, Corgan had, in typical rockstar fashion, varied his hair styles fairly often.
During the album's tour, the band was plagued by Chamberlin's heroin addiction. On July 12, 1996, Chamberlin and touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin overdosed in a hotel room. Chamberlin survived, but Melvoin did not. The Pumpkins were forced to fire their disgraced drummer. They completed the tour with Filter drummer Matt Walker and Frogs keyboardist Dennis Flemion, but the band missed the intense energy that Chamberlin's drumming provided.
Bono, of U2 fame, reflected upon the band's supposed fall from success; "A lot of people say that the Smashing Pumpkins went downhill after Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and I would say that they are correct in that assumption."
Their next effort, 1998's Adore, was undertaken with drum machines and studio drummers in place of Chamberlin, and consisted mostly of subdued material. Corgan's mother Martha passed away from cancer during the making of the record, and in the absence of Chamberlin—Corgan's longtime creative foil—some thought the proceedings took on a halting, confused tone. Adore earned high praise from some critics and many fans, but other critics and most of the more casual listeners thought the band had strayed too far from its strengths, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (2x platinum compared to the 9x platinum "Mellon Collie").
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999, for the band's brief ARISING! tour. 2000 saw MACHINA/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image; critics were again divided. Nearing the end of the recording for MACHINA, bassist D'Arcy quit the band and was replaced by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. Only 25 copies were made of the band's last album as it was recorded and released by the band and not by their label - Virgin, who had no interest in releasing another Pumpkins album. The 25 copies of MACHINA II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music consisted of 3 10" EPs and a Double 12" LP. These were distributed to the chosen 25 fans, with some instructed to release the songs for free in MP3 format on the Internet as soon as possible. The Smashing Pumpkins split up later in 2000 and played their last show on December 2 of that year at the Metro in Chicago.
In 2001, Corgan formed Zwan with Chamberlin and guitarists Matt Sweeney and David Pajo, with former A Perfect Circle bassist Paz Lenchantin joining in 2002. Zwan's focus on sunny, melodic pop-rock surprised fans and critics, and its album Mary Star of the Sea (written in and inspired by Key West, Florida), garnered generally positive reviews. In March 2003, Corgan and Chamberlin performed with Jazz vocalist Kurt Elling at "The Waltz", an annual benefit for homeless and abused teenagers. Together, they performed a version of Jimi Hendrix's "Freedom". During an interview with WGN-9 on September 15 that same year, Corgan announced that Zwan had officially disbanded.
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, Hole, The Frogs, and Catherine. He wrote the song "Eye" for the movie Lost Highway (1997) and has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002). He has performed vocals and guitar for New Order and Marianne Faithfull. Corgan was also featured on Blindside's 2004 album About a Burning Fire, in the song "Hooray, It's LA". Corgan has also written a song entitled "Lost In The Woods" with Taproot (band) for their 2005 LP Blue-Sky Research and on Breaking Benjamin's We Are Not Alone, Corgan helped write and performed on a song.
On February 17, 2004, Corgan posted a bitter message on his blog in which he blamed guitarist James Iha for the sudden breakup of The Smashing Pumpkins four years prior. He also referred to bassist D'arcy Wretzky as "a mean spirited drug addict." On June 3, 2004 he posted an apology of sorts to Iha, writing that "i love [Iha] very, very much...the depth of my hurt is only matched by the depth of my gratitude". In another post, Corgan insulted his former Zwan bandmates, claiming they had been obnoxiously self-conscious about their "indie cred" to the point of hurting those around them. Poking fun at their indie stance, he called them "poseurs". Sounding both enraged and hurt, he declared them to be "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
Despite various hardships, both professionally and personally, Corgan and Chamberlin remain good friends. Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song 'Loki Cat' on Chamberlin's first solo album Life Begins Again with the band The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. Likewise, Chamberlin played drums for the song 'DIA' on Corgan's solo debut.
Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry, in late 2004. The book debuted on the New York Times' Best Seller list. It was also the best-selling poetry book in the United States in its first week of release. Corgan is currently pursuing a solo career and recently released TheFutureEmbrace on June 21st, 2005. Corgan toured on the back of his solo album with a touring band that included long-time collaborator and friend, Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005.
On day of the release of "TheFutureEmbrace", Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two most prominent newspapers (The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to reform the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Billy Corgan's offer for a reunion. On January 1st, 2006, the Chicago Tribune published their 10th Annual Alewife Awards; a sardonic critique of noteworthy cultural events and figures in the previous year. Amongst the 2005 recipients was Corgan for having "pulled the rug out from under his well-reviewed first solo album... by taking out full-page newspaper ads the day of its release to herald his decision to 'renew and revive The Smashing Pumpkins...'". The award summation also revealed that the advertisement was the means by which former bandmates James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky learned of Corgan's reunion plans. It was rumoured that the band would reunite on the second day of the Coachella music festival in California in April. However, this rumour was proven false. In fact, the entire rumour was based on a photoshopped lineup poster for the festival, which was posted on the festival discussion board, with the creator labelling it as "wishful thinking". According to 91-X XTRA-FM music director Marcos Collins, who spoke to Billy Corgan's label, Reprise Records, "Reprise said that for whatever reason Billy backed out of it." Rumours are still rife however about a possible reformed lineup, after Billy Corgan's december 2005 Myspace posting, in which he claims his "big surprise" is shortly to be announced. His post finishes with the sentence "Don't you love the suspense?" leaving the door open for rumours and discussion.
--Wikipedia
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