Billy Corgan

At 57 years old, Billy Corgan has this physical status:

William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American singer and songwriter who is the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins, in addition to being the sole owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance.

With the addition of bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, the Smashing Pumpkins quickly regained steam in Chicago, Illinois, between Corgan and guitarist James Iha in 1988.

The band's rising success in the 1990s led to a break-up in 2000.

Corgan formed Zwan, a new band after their quick demise, and released TheFutureEmbrace in 2005 and a series of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before focusing on Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of The Smashing Pumpkins, which includes Corgan and a revolving lineup, has been published and toured new albums often since 2007.

Corgan's first solo album in over a decade, Ogilala, came out in 2001 and struck Lou E. Dangerously in the head with a guitar after being insulted.

He formed Resistance Pro Wrestling in Chicago in 2011.

He became president in August 2016. Impact Wrestling, a unified Nonstop Action Wrestling) joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (now Impact Wrestling), later becoming its president in 2015.

Corgan purchased the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), the first NWA since leaving TNA in November 2016.

In 2019, Corgan revealed that he would record a new solo album sometime this year.

He debuted Cotillions, his latest album that was released on November 22, 2019.

Early life

William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on March 17, 1967, the youngest son of guitarist William Dale Corgan (1947-2021) and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and of Irish descent. Before divorce in 1970, his parents had one more son, Ricky. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother were born in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was cruel to him both physically and emotionally. He formed a close relationship with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. Both three boys lived alone with their stepmother when Corgan's father and his mother divorced, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.

Corgan referred to his father as a "drug-dealer, weapons-toting, singer [and] mad man." Despite the fact that his childhood had a major negative influence on his growth, in retrospect, he reveres his father as a gifted guitarist.

Corgan, who grew at a much faster rate than his classmates, was a good participant in elementary school. He started over 10,000 baseball cards and followed every Chicago Cubs game on the radio, in addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School. However, by the time he started attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. After going over to a friend's house, he decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V. Corgan owed his money to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father urged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but he didn't have any more assistance, so Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. John Cale, the founder of Guts, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock such as Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick were among his musical influences during his formative years. Through Bauhaus and The Cure, Corgan discovered alternative rock in high school. He was active in a number of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grants and scholarships from a variety of colleges, as well as a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan has decided to study music full time.

Personal life

Corgan has suffered with anxiety, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation for a large portion of his life. These difficulties were attributed to his father's and stepmother's abuse as a child, as well as other personal issues. He has since worked as an advocate for harassment recovery organizations.

Corgan is an avid fan of the Chicago Cubs as well as an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally tossing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." He is a fan of the Chicago Bulls, Chicago Blackhawks, and Chicago Bears, and has become best friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is a dieter of professional wrestling, and he was at an ECW function wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon at an ECW tournament. ROH used the Pumpkins' song "Doomsday Clock" in 2008 for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to address his passion for wrestling and the importance of individual theme songs for characters. During a livestream performance for MTV World Stage on August 26, 2010, he appeared in a storyline with AAA. Corgan once said that all he watches on television are "sports and the Three Stooges," in terms of other entertainment. In March 2008, he was discovered in the crowd on the last day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.

Corgan acknowledges some of Catholicism, Buddhism, and Ken Wilber's spiritual beliefs. He started Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website dedicated to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration in 2009. He talks about how he prays each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An examination of Corgan's lyrics' symbolism involved a combination of faiths he has cited in numerous interviews, which include theories of faith, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. Corgan said in an interview with Howard Stern on the Howard Stern Exhibition that she had once worked with someone who had the ability to shapeshift.

Martha Corgan's mother died in December 1996. In her memory, Adore's song "For Martha" was written. Corgan's Martha's Music was named after her in the early 2000s. On the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet, there is a photo of Martha as a young girl on a fake moon at Riverview Park.

Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian in 1993, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small reception at his Wrigleyville home. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. In December 1996, Corgan applied for divorce on the grounds of "irreconcilable differences"; the separation was granted in 1997. For years, Corgan refused to discuss the marriage, only acknowledging that it was "unhealthy." Via his personal blog, he explored the details of his marriage in 2005.

Corgan began dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art in late 1995. He continued to date Yemchuk until about 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her helped with the concept of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. Emilie Autumn dated Corgan for a few months in 2005. During this period, the pair performed on several occasions, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.

Corgan and her daughter Courtney Love and her child arrived in early 2006 in a new world. In her Hollywood Hills home, he had his own wing, according to Love. Love chastised him for reportedly refusing to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party two years later. "I have no interest in assisting [Love] in any way, shape or form," Corgan said in a March 2010 interview. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Corgan's reaction to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean," which ended up on the record without his permission, came just short of her band's Nobody's Daughter's. Love later wrote an apology to him on Facebook, but the feud has raged. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her once more. On Twitter, she replied, "All i am is nice about you, so if you want to be mean, well, don't feel anything." "I have too much to feel sorry" says the narrator. He criticized his commitment to music in 2008 for "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row." The two people eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at the Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show.

Jessica Simpson, a pop star, was associated with Corgan in 2009. He began dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010 and stayed in a friendship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso attributed their split on their work, which made them spend far too much time apart.

Chloe Mendel was first seen in 2013. On November 16, 2015, she gave birth to Augustus Juppiter Corgan. On October 2, 2018, they had their second child, Philomena Clementine Corgan, born on October 2, 2018.

William Dale Corgan, Corgan's father, died at the age of 74 on December 19, 2021.

Corgan said in 1998 that he had not run in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton. "I'm really proud of my country right now for doing the right thing," Corgan said following Barack Obama's reelection bid in 2008. Since being dissatisfied with Obama's presidency, he has maintained that he does not have faith in both major political parties. Lyndon LaRouche, a political activist, uploaded a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum in 2009. Corgan testified in front of Congress on March 10, 2009 on behalf of the musicFIRST Alliance. He voted in favour of H.R. The Performance Rights Act, 848, guarantees musicians and performers a cut of compensation if their music is broadcast on radio stations.

Corgan expressed dissatisfaction with "social justice warriors" in an interview with radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in 2016, comparing them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan, and calling their behavior a threat to free expression. He referred to himself as a "free-market capitalist capitalist" in 2018.

In 2013, Corgan embarked on a pescetarian diet, and in 2017 he announced that he had started following a vegan and gluten-free diet. Madame Zuzu's Tea House, a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park, closed in 2018 and reopened in 2020 in downtown Highland Park.

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Music career

Corgan left Chicago for his first major band, The Marked, in 1985 (so named for both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing's prominent birthmarks). Since being unsuccessful in St. Petersburg, the group dissolved; Corgan returned to Chicago to live with his father. He performed guitar in the Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also included future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He urged the band to concentrate on The Smashing Pumpkins.

Corgan had already planned his next project, the Smashing Pumpkins, on his return to Chicago. While working in a record store, Corgan met guitarist James Iha, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop songs." After a local performance, D'arcy Wretzky blasted a band that just performed, The Dan Reed Network. The Smashing Pumpkins were born soon after. With a drum machine for percussion, the threesome began to perform together at local clubs. The band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and performed as a quartet for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988, in order to guarantee a show at the Metro in Chicago.

Chamberlin's arrival brought the band's course in a faster direction almost immediately. The band's debut album, Gish (1991), combined psychedelic rock and heavy metal, resulting in their sound. The Gish Farewell came out better than expected, but Siamese Dream, which was released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. During this period, the band became well-known for internal drama, with Corgan often referred to as a "control freak" due to reports that Corgan played all of the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well-received by critics, and the songs "Today," "Cherub Rock," and "Disarm" became hits.

The band's 1995 sequel, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more popular, spawning a series of hit singles. Corgan wanted to "lose himself and discover himself" in this collection, according to Jon Pareles of The New York Times. This year, the album was nominated for seven Grammy awards, and in the United States, it would be rated ten times platinum. "1979" was Corgan's highest chart to date, peaking at No. 79. Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts rank 1st. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to market this information (their second appearance on the program overall) was also the television debut of Corgan's shaved head, which he has favored consistently since.

Jonathan Melvoin, a touring keyboardist, died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together on July 12, 1996. Chamberlin was later found guilty of misdemeanor drug possession. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and move as a trio. This experience, as well as Corgan's going through a divorce and the death of his mother, inspired the band's new record, 1998's Adore. Adore divided critics and fans at a time when alternative rock was losing in mainstream cache, resulting in a dramatic decline in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the United States).

In 1999, Chamberlin was reunited with the band. Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band intentionally played to their public image, was released in 2000. Critics were split again, and sales were lower than ever; Machina was the second lowest-selling Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with 53,000 units in the United States up to 2005. Wretzky quit the band on recording for Machina and was replaced by Melissa Auf der Maur for the forthcoming tour. Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, a 2000 band from Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, died off the internet and died at the end of the year, performing their last performance at the Cabaret Metro on December 2, 2000.

Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001 after a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer. Corgan's few live performances with the band, according to New York Times author Neil Strauss, "is still a work in progress." With guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin, the lineup was complete. The band had two distinct incarnations, the first being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, and the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic interpretation with live strings. The quintet's debut and debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, received largely critical feedback in early 2003. As the band's apparent hiatus began in September 2003, they announced that increasing tensions between Corgan and Chamberlin, as well as other band members, resulted in the cancellation of the remaining tour.

Corgan began posting autobiographical articles on his website and MySpace page in 2004, blaming Iha's demise of the Smashing Pumpkins and chastising his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie faith" and calling them "filthy" and "opportunistic, selfish.

Billy read his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium on September 17, 2003. A book of poetry called Blinking with Fists, published in late 2004 by Corgan. Despite mixed critiques, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the heading The Confessions of Billy Corgan.

He began his solo music career in 2004, lands on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. It was published in June 21, 2005 by Reprise Records, which received mixed media from the media and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan performed with Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang, and Matt Walker in 2005, a touring band. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkin or Zwan tours. Corgan had written 72 songs influenced by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be announced.

Corgan's desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins emerged in 2005 in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times). Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's call for a reunion a few days later.

The band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting on April 20, 2006. The revived Smashing Pumpkins performed their first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. Timegeist, the new album, was launched in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 1 in the United States on July 10, 2007. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the remainder of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, as well as the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." "Superchrist" and "Megachrist." Chamberlin left the band in March 2009 and Corgan decided to continue under the name.

Corgan formed Spirits in the Sky in 2009 to perform a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, which included ex-Catherine and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Tulin, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, performing covers and new Pumpkins music at various clubs in California. After the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown returned to Chicago to begin working on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, on a new smashing Pumpkins album. Nicole Fiorentino, the current bassist, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording "album-within-an-album" Oceania and touring tours of the United States and Europe, and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino will leave the band in 2014 later this year.

Corgan's AEGEA, a new solo collection of experimental recordings he made in 2007, was limited to 250 vinyl copies, with a few copies sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house that he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago, on May 15, 2014.

Corgan also published the tapes from his "Sidhartha" exhibition from March 2014, much in the spirit of AEGEA. Between 5 and 6 discs, according to the set, it was predicted that it would contain between 5 and 6 discs.

Corgan's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, was released in summer 2014 by Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.

Corgan launched "People and Their Cars" in September 2015, a collection of vintage photographs that he himself curated. The Red Border Club also had an email address for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club." This list was meant to be used for research into upcoming people and their cars, as well as access to additional images.

He released Ogilala, a new solo album, in October 2017.

The Smashing Pumpkins resurfaced on the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour in July 2018, with a focus on performing content from their first five studio albums. The lineup includes himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. According to unresolved tensions between her and Corgan, former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a member of the lineup. Wretzky said that Corgan gave her a job but later retracted it, adding that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." A feud erupted between Wretzky and Corgan after she sent text messages, with each party referring to each other with biting remarks.

Corgan's third solo album Cotillions, which he described as "a labor of love" on November 22, 2019. "This is clearly an album from my heart," the singer added.

Corgan and his partner, Chloe Mendel, announced on July 14, 2022, that they would host a livestream charity show on July 27 to help the victims of the July 4 shooting in Highland Park, Illinois.

Professional wrestling career

Resistance Pro, a Chicago-based independent wrestling group, was founded in 2011 by Corgan. In 2013, he appeared in a Walter E. Smithe Furniture commercial, using the web to advertise his wrestling company.

In March 2014, it was announced that Corgan was in talks with American television network AMC to produce an unscripted reality show about Resistance Pro. With Corgan's "taking over the independent wrestling company"'s creative direction, the premise becomes a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the promotion. AMC granted the show the green light in the same month under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project."

Corgan's new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his job was to "create characters and create story lines" that he had described as "a dream come true." Corgan took over as the promotion's new president in August 2016.

Since complaints about not being paid on time, Corgan left TNA in November 2016, and later, TNA Impact Wrestling's parent company, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp, and Impact Ventures, Inc., provided a credit facility to TNA to fund TNA's operations. He lent money to TNA in 2016 but the company said they would pay him back. Corgan and Anthem also signed a deal on November 11, with Anthem repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.

President Ed Nordholm, a newly installed TNA/Impact Wrestling President, owes the development and vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana, and Billy Corgan. Although Borash had the most insight into the three brothers' gimmick aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole individual behind the gag.

Corgan bought the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), which includes its name, rights, trademarks, and championship belts. Corgan's shares went into operation on October 1, 2017.

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