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EXPLAINED: Pumpkins - The Real Truth

“Billy shared that the Pumpkins had confirmed headlining Lollapalooza. He said sweetly, ‘If you wanna join us for a song, please do’”: Melissa Auf der Maur lifts the veil on her surprise appearance at Lollapalooza with the Smashing Pumpkins

Auf der Maur ascended to the Lollapalooza stage with her former band in a move that harked directly back to the ’90s

Guitar World

Olivia Rodrigo ticks another name off her alt-rock wishlist as she joins Smashing Pumpkins on stage at Lollapalooza to sing Thirty Three

Billy Corgan and co were headlining in their home city of Chicago

MusicRadar

The Smashing Pumpkins reunite with Melissa Auf der Maur at Lollapalooza – and treat fans to a surprise team-up with Olivia Rodrigo and Yungblud

Billy Corgan and co. balanced nostalgia with their more recent era at their first Lollapalooza set since 1994

Guitar World

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"The last great double album. So great that it should've been released in the 1970s." Billy Corgan unleashes his grand artistic statement on Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness

Billy Corgan’s ambitions reached their zenith on Smashing Pumpkins' swollen 1995 double album Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness

Louder

“There will be, like, maybe two more LPs of unreleased tracks… There was a lot of writing in that band”: Billy Corgan to release unheard Zwan material

Band only released one album in 2003

MusicRadar

"By the time you get to the end, it's like, Okay, that's a classic." Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan recalls the first time he heard Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit

The night that Butch Vig played Billy Corgan an unreleased cassette of Nirvana's Nevermind album

Louder

“Billy has been an incredible mentor... He has such a vast knowledge of pedals”: Smashing Pumpkins’ Kiki Wong on how Billy Corgan led her down the stompbox rabbit hole

Kiki Wong discusses her pedalboard strategy for nailing classic Pumpkins tones and credits Corgan as a bona-fide guru of effects

Guitar World

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"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

“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

“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

"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"

Louder

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.

The Conversation

"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

Louder

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.

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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

Salon

The beauty and brutality of '90s rock

"Even the Good Girls Will Cry" recounts the era's mythmaking and how the former Hole bassist managed to survive it

Guitar World

“Living in the shadow of my grunge parents, Courtney and Billy… it was a complex and exhausting shadow to come out from under”: Melissa Auf der Maur on joining Hole amidst tragedy and her “Master’s in Music” with the Smashing Pumpkins

In her love letter to the ’90s – the last analog decade – the Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bassist shares how she fell in love with the low-end and became an integral part of the noise-making generation

Guitar World

“I threw my guitar off mid strum, dove into the crowd and began strangling him to the ground”: Billy Corgan on the first time he met future Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur

The pair reflect on how a heckler at an early Pumpkins gig led to a decades-long friendship

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Guitar World

“I was a good bass player, and I am proud of my Celebrity Skin work, but oh my God, it changed my level of musicianship forever”: Melissa Auf der Maur on what she learned from playing with Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins

Auf der Maur joined the Pumpkins in October 1999 following a five-year stint with Hole

Guitar World

“Ed was under the same pressure we all were. You can play your old gear, but it sounds old”: Billy Corgan on what drives guitar heroes to change their tone – and how it led him to package his sound in a pedal

The Smashing Pumpkins guitar icon reflects on a tonal journey four decades in the making, what pushes him to make signature gear like the new Laney Supergrace affordable, and why he’s the most excited he’s been to make a guitar album in 25 years

Guitar World

"There’s clarity where you want it, and a glorious wall of noise when you need it": Laney Black Country Customs Billy Corgan Supergrace Loudpedal review

Laney distills Billy Corgan's legendary rig into a pedalboard-friendly amp that goes way beyond Smashing Pumpkins tones

Guitar World

“It was an extremely agile move. It was so smooth, it was like we had choreographed it”: Michael Angelo Batio on the time Billy Corgan spared his blushes during a Smashing Pumpkins guest spot

The double-neck guitar shred icon once shared the stage with Smashing Pumpkins during their Riot Fest headline slot

Guitar World

“There’s nothing that impressive about being able to play the guitar at a decently high level anymore”: Why Billy Corgan changed the way he plays guitar solos

Social media burnout has impacted the role of guitar solos in the Smashing Pumpkins’ live show

Guitar World

“I walked into a Guitar Center one day and took it off the wall. It launched 1,000 ships of people chasing that sound”: The guitar that changed Billy Corgan’s life

It soundtracked two of the biggest alt-rock albums of all time, but as the Smashing Pumpkins leader remembers, the guitar itself was far from expensive

MusicRadar

“Give the average guitar player the chance to own my live rig. My tone. The tone worth $100,000s”: Billy Corgan and Laney Amplification unveil the ultimate Smashing Pumpkins amp-in-a-box pedal

NAMM 2026: The Supergrace is a two-hander between Laney and Brian Carstens, and Corgan gave it a trial by fire when playing with My Chemical Romance in front of 60,000 fans

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