Billy Corgan has found something he likes about the modern world.
The famously curmudgeonly Smashing Pumpkins leader regularly laments the state of the music industry in the modern era, but speaking with Zane Lowe in a recent Apple Music interview, Corgan identified one aspect of the industry that he’s happy with.
“What I like about the world that’s coming is the gatekeepers are dead, and now people are figuring out who the real bands are,” he tells Lowe. “So you know when I used to make the case for Echo and the Bunnymen, or Sisters of Mercy, or Siouxsie and the Banshees or whatever, people were like, ‘Yeah yeah yeah, but….’ Of course they knew the band that was the imitation band that sold a lot more records. Now that that all that’s dying now, so that’s good because the real the real OG bands are going to get their due. Hopefully for some it won’t be too late.”
Listing a clutch of iconic, singular artists who he believes are finally get the respect they deserve, Corgan says, “Kate Bush, one of one, Siouxsie, one of one, Robert Smith, one of one…”
In the same interview, Corgan admits to crying when Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain died, as he felt that he had lost “his greatest opponent”.
“I will go down always as saying Kurt [Cobain] was the most talented guy of our generation,” Corgan says “Kurt had so much talent it’s like frightening, it was like a John Lennon level of talent, where you’re like, How can you have all this talent? Or Prince, right? But Kurt’s not here, you know, sadly… When Kurt died I cried, because I lost my greatest opponent.”
Watch the full interview below:
