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UNCOVERED: Billy corgan | History Defined

The Kinks' Dave Davies says serial killer John Wayne Gacy was 'so nice'

Dave Davies made the revelation during a chat on The Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan’s podcast The Magnificent Others, where he reflected on his time with The Kinks, and recited the lyrics from their 1967 tune Death of a Clown.

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"I have this memory of killing myself, blasting my head off, and then throwing the guitar at the amp over and over." The story behind the most intense song on the most ambitious rock album of the '90s

Life isn't always easy as a perfectionist

Louder

“If anybody could play like that, they must be crazy”: How Dave Davies wrote the savage solo for the Kinks’ breakthrough hit

Davies debunks false claims that the track featured Jimmy Page and reveals how it all came about

Guitar World

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"The multilayered, 10-dimensional record that would help imbue grunge with a panoramic afterburn." Smashing Pumpkins' debut album Gish mixes Zep rock grooves, acid folk, shoegaze and trippy psychedelic angst

Gish is celebrating its 35th birthday in shades of variously coloured vinyl

Louder

"I said, You’re walking around like you’re God’s gift to rock 'n' roll. I want you out of my studio." Why 4 Non Blondes leader Linda Perry kicked one of the biggest rock superstars of the '90s out of a recording session

"He was a Debbie Downer"

Louder

"He was drunk out of his mind and he asked me to make out with him." Billy Corgan on how he became a fan of The Cure...and the first time he met Robert Smith

The Smashing Pumpkins frontman and Cure leader went on to become fast friends

Louder

Smashing Pumpkins up for Las Vegas Sphere Mellon Collie show

Billy Corgan says Smashing Pumpkins would jump at the chance to bring their operatic A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness production to the Las Vegas Sphere, even though they haven’t been asked yet.

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“If this isn’t a 10 out of 10 announcement, I don’t know what is”: The Smashing Pumpkins reunite with Siamese Dream producer for the first time in 32 years

Butch Vig was the man behind the board for Billy Corgan and co's landmark albums, and has been on production duties for their new single

Guitar World

"Four decades of hits and dark treasures." Smashing Pumpkins announce The Rats In The Cage tour

The tour celebrates the 30th anniversary of Smashing Pumpkins' multi-platinum album Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness

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“The script is right there. This movie will absolutely happen”: Jack Osbourne says Ozzy biopic is written and gives tentative release date

We still don’t know who’ll play the Prince Of Darkness, though

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"This magical dream doesn’t have to end." Billy Corgan announces UK and European dates for A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness, an orchestral and operatic rendering of The Smashing Pumpkins’ iconic 1995 album

"The success of translating Mellon Collie into operatic and classical form has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my life"

Louder

“It all went a bit sour and nasty. Eldritch likes a battle – he thrives on confrontation. Mind you, he told me I was the best guitarist he’d ever worked with”: The difficult birth of The Sisters of Mercy’s trailblazing goth classic

Billy Corgan loved First and Last and Always so much he invited guitarist Wayne Hussey to his home to jam it. Over 40 years on, Hussey and Gary Marx look back on its dark majesty

Guitar World

Watch Stevie Nicks and pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter duet on Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide at at the Met Gala

Two icons, one song

Louder

“Billy said, ‘I've never played a high-gain amp that I like.’ It was a tall order”: How a Smashing Pumpkins superfan made the only amp Billy Corgan has ever truly loved

Brian Carstens spent 30 years obsessing over Corgan’s guitar tone. Then he ended up making amps for his hero – not to mention John Fogerty, Tool and Misha Mansoor

Guitar World

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"Look at the bands that are out there now, crap like Radiohead. You can't tell us that we don't deserve to be more than that." On the eve of the release of Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, Smashing Pumpkins wanted to take on the world

"Everyone keeps telling us how pretentious this album is without even hearing it"

Guitar World

“I wanted a bicycle for Christmas, and they gave me a guitar. It pissed me off”: Jeff “Skunk” Baxter has played with everyone from Steely Dan to Dolly Parton – but he didn’t even want to be a guitar player

Baxter would go on to become a bona fide guitar great, but his life might have turned out differently had he got his wish...

The Conversation

Girls in bands: two 90s rock icons on romance, ruthlessness and boring men

In the 1990s, Melissa Auf der Maur played bass in two of the decade’s most notable rock bands: Hole and Smashing Pumpkins.

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"A masterpiece, and yet not the band's finest hour." Every Smashing Pumpkins album ranked from worst to best

The collected studio works of Billy Corgan and company rated and ranked, from the so-so to the smashing

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Guitar World

“I would get up in the middle of the night, play it in the middle of the night, in the dark, no light”: Billy Corgan trained himself to play in pitch black

Corgan reveals the unconventional approach he took to learn the instrument

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Roger Waters blasts back at Disturbed frontman David Draiman after being accused of ‘massive betrayal’ to ‘Jews everywhere’

In an escalation of a public row over the pair’s opposing stances on the Israel–Palestine conflict, Roger Waters has hit back at Disturbed frontman David Draiman after being accused of a “massive betrayal” to “Jews everywhere”.

MusicRadar

“Is it cool if I bring some rock royalty on the stage right now?”: Billy Corgan suffers mic malfunction as he makes his first ever appearance at Coachella alongside Sombr to sing a Smashing Pumpkins classic

You wait 30 years to sing one of your biggest hits in the desert, and then this happens

Guitar World

“The two things I remember are the cool guitar stuff… and this never-ending scream”: Billy Corgan on the first time he met Courtney Love and witnessed Hole live

After meeting at a Chicago venue in 1991, the two artists and their respective bands were interlinked for decades to come

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Courtney Love was 'angry' over Melissa Auf der Maur quitting Hole to join Smashing Pumpkins

Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur has recalled Courtney Love's reaction to her joining The Smashing Pumpkins.

Louder

"They told me I was insane – things like 'career suicide' and all that stuff was thrown around." The drama behind the recording of Smashing Pumpkins' era-defining, bombastic masterpiece

Thirty years after its release, Billy Corgan looks back at the making of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness

Louder

"By writing obsessively in my diary I was admitting, This is madness, you are in danger, be careful." Hole, Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur on surviving the '90s, love, loss, and her brilliant memoir Even The Good Girls Will Cry

"There was a lot of pain from all the death and drugs and corporate destruction"

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