Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One app.

Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles. One news app.

REVEALED: 2 | Vintage Vibes

“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, dove into the crowd, and began strangling him to the ground. I remember the look of terror in his eyes." The night that Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan met his future bandmate, and future Hole bassist, Melissa Auf der Maur

The night that fate brought two alt. rock icons together

Louder

“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

Guitar World

From analysis to the latest developments in health,
read the most diverse news in one place.

“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

“MTV in 1997 or 1998, suddenly they decided rock was out - it was replaced by rap… People were waving guns. Some people assert the CIA was involved... above my pay grade, but I saw it happen”: Billy Corgan says rock was “dialled down” in the late ’90s

He says rock stars don’t have “a voice in the culture”. Er...

MusicRadar

“My dad said, ‘What happened to you?’ In six months I’d gone from a college-looking kid to looking like a real rock star”: From inventing the Quad Guitar to fast times with Yngwie, Michael Angelo Batio has stories for days – and no regrets

Determined to be a star from age 10, his highlights include seeing Yngwie Malmsteen's first US show, joining Manowar, being saved from a stage fail by Billy Corgan, and inventing the double guitar, Quad Guitar, and over 20 signature models

Guitar World

Read news from The Economist, FT, and more,
with one subscription

“Tony said, ‘Hey, you’re singing flat.’ My dad got really pissed off”: Jack Osbourne says a heated moment during soundcheck before Black Sabbath’s farewell show revealed everything about Tony Iommi and Ozzy’s relationship

Jack Osbourne says everyone needs a friend like Iommi was to Ozzy

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

"Breaking the Law is a revolution song." Watch Rob Halford discuss conflict, rioting and rage in trailer for forthcoming documentary The Ballad of Judas Priest, starring Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Grohl, Billy Corgan, Kirk Hammett and more

"You cannot cage this music, you cannot put this music behind bars"

Metal Hammer

“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

“The reason everybody knows Eric Clapton’s name is not because he’s a great guitar player”: Billy Corgan says virtuosic guitar solos mean nothing in the social media age – and argues guitar influencers need to make a bigger impact on popular music

The Smashing Pumpkins frontman sees virtuosos everywhere but he would like to see these talents being applied in the next generation of great alt-rock and metal bands

MusicRadar

"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

“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

Guitar World

Get all your
news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One news app.

Guitar World

From Neural DSP's much-anticipated Quad Cortex Mini, to signature Yamaha guitars and Iron Maiden-themed wah pedals, here’s the best stuff you can buy right now from this year's NAMM highlights!

As we recover from the mind-melting amount of new guitar gear announced at NAMM, we take a look at the must-have items that are available right now

What Hi-Fi?

Don't Look Back in Anger at these classic 1996 tracks turning 30 this year

Life comes at you pretty fast

Guitar World

NAMM 2026 live! The biggest guitar news as it happened

All the hottest news and biggest surprises from the world’s premier guitar gear trade show

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

Get all your
news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One news app.

Guitar World

“Give the average guitar player the chance to own my live rig. The tone worth $100,000s”: Billy Corgan has shrunk his Smashing Pumpkins rig into a Laney pedal amp – and he tested it in front of 60,000 My Chemical Romance fans

When Corgan walked onstage with My Chemical Romance at Soldier Field stadium, he didn’t bring his guitar rig. He plugged into the Laney Supergrace and nothing else

Louder

"I gave away all my records, I started giving away my guitars, I was fantasising about my own death." The horrifying origin story behind one of the most uplifting rock songs of the '90s

Out of the darkness, light, and one of the most memorable anthems of the '90s

Metal Hammer

"Every time I opened Rolling Stone there was a picture of him in his underpants." How Mariah Carey, Cher, Whitney Houston, Courtney Love, Michael Stipe and more got savaged by one of the 90s' most brutal diss tracks

This classic 90s industrial metal banger is also one of the angriest

MusicRadar

“Dom has one of the greatest voices in the history of music, and as grand as that may sound there is no hype in what I’m saying”: Billy Corgan heaps praise on Yungblud, who the Smashing Pumpkins have just collaborated with

“I truly believe when all is said and done, he will stand up there with the greats,” says Corgan

Guitar World

“It’s one thing to be a visionary, but it’s another thing to have the gift to pull off the vision”: Why Billy Corgan and Smashing Pumpkins collaborated with Yungblud

The alt-rock legend has become the latest big name to link up with Yungblud

The Guardian - UK

‘I’ve got a fearlessness to being laid bare’: how Yungblud became Britain’s biggest rock star

In 2025 the Doncaster-born singer-songwriter has earned two UK No 1s, three Grammy nominations and the respect of rock’s greats – and he says it’s all down to putting fans first

Louder

"To watch one of my idols work on something that I had written was one of the greatest honours of my life. " Watch Yungblud team up with Smashing Pumpkins for a reworking of 2025 single Zombie

Another day, another cross-generational collaboration for Yungblud

1 2 3 4 5

People

From analysis to the latest developments in health,
read the most diverse news in one place.

Organisations

Read news from The Economist, FT, and more,
with one subscription

Topics

Places

Fourteen days free

Download the app

One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.