Billy Corgan Knows You Think He's a 'Contrarian.' How His New Podcast Shows a Different Side (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Billy Corgan.Photo:Jason Renaud

Jason Renaud

Billy Corganhad toyed with the idea of a podcast for quite some time.

TheSmashing Pumpkins frontman’s innate curiosity and charisma seemed a natural fit for the format, and his status as a Grammy-winning, alt-rock legend certainly gave him an in when it came to intriguing guests. But, he tells PEOPLE, “there was really almost zero interest. My phone didn’t ring.”

EnterBill Maher. After appearing on the comedian’sClub Randompodcast nearly two years ago, opportunity came knocking, and before long, Corgan, 57, was part of the company’s podcasting family. On Feb. 5, the rocker launchedThe Magnificent Others, a series of conversations he hopes will give listeners a new perspective on the lives of some of their favorite stars.

“I’m really not after clickbait. I want to understand something and I really don’t talk to my guests any different than I would talk to them if they were sitting at the kitchen table,” Corgan explains of what sets him apart. “I want that feeling.”

For Corgan, the podcast is also an opportunity to show fans a different side to him, one closer to the person those in his inner circle know and love (Corgan marriedChloe Mendel, 32, creative director and cofounder of fashion brand Maison Atia, in September 2023. They’re parents to sonAugustus, 9, and daughterPhilomena, 6, and have athird child on the way. In addition to music, he’s also the president of the National Wrestling Alliance and owner of the tea shop Madame Zuzu’s in Highland Park, Ill.)

“The people that know me, know me and the people that don’t and want to believe that I’m stuck somewhere in 1995, that’s totally okay,” he says. “I’m okay with doing the podcast as I am and really celebrating my guests in a way that feels good to me.”

It’s been a few weeks since you released the first podcast. How are you finding the reaction so far?

Yes, it’s an interview, but it’s really a conversation is what I’m after, molded in the style of the things that I used to see on PBS Television in Chicago back in the ’70s. This idea that people can sit down and have a really deep conversation in a world that seems to be shying away from really deep peaceful conversation.

Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins performs at Fenway Park.Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty

Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty

You said in a recent interview that you feel like you’ve entered the third act of your career, which is to correct the record. What do you feel is the biggest misconception out there about you?

Oh gosh, I wouldn’t even know where to start. I entered the music business at a time where it was constructed in a particular way, and I was part of a generation that broke down some of those rules. But in breaking down some of those rules, because I wasn’t adept at fame or being a press darling, you assume a public character.

How has having that divide between your private and public persona helped you manage fame?

I did it to protect myself. Having come from a very abusive childhood, I was not prepared to deal with the pressures that fame bring. And I say this with humility — when you try to go to your world and explain, “I’m struggling with what’s being put upon me,” everyone looks at you like you’re crazy because they’re like, “Well, I sure wish I had those problems.” Even recently, as you’ve seen withChappell Roanwhere she’s talkedpublicly about her strugglesand is willing to stand on a stage and an award show and kind of go after the music business, she at a greater level is addressing this long-standing secret in the business that young people are put under an incredible amount of duress to succeed. And if you don’t succeed, there isn’t necessarily anybody standing there to help you deal with the loss in failure. And because we’re a fame-driven culture, you don’t get a lot of sympathy. So it’s complicated.

So do you feel this podcast is an opportunity for the world to meet the real Billy Corgan?

Honestly, I’ve given up on the idea of expectation. I think it’s okay to want to achieve something, but I also think you can imprison yourself with an expectation. I think the American public in particular has been programmed to believe certain things about people who are famous, and there isn’t a lot of wiggle room in those parameters. So I’m okay with being misunderstood or not being appreciated. That’s okay. I just draw the line at my compliance with it, if that makes sense.

What’s your research process like? Are you studying up?

It’s an intense process to prepare. It’s probably at least 90 minutes to two hours per person. And that may not seem like a lot, but that’s on top of all my cursory knowledge, which unfortunately is too much as it is. My wife [Chloe] always complains, I know a lot about too much. I’m really intent on not asking the same questions that these people always seem to get asked. I know what that feels like. So my two hours is spent kind of poking around in their world trying to find something.

WithThe Magnificent Others[as a title], I wanted to say these are people that I celebrate, while at the same time recognizing that you as the viewer may not understand my perspective on why they should be celebrated.

Does it scare you to try something so new at this stage in your career?

Sure. Of course. You’re talking about a 90-minute interview where you’re very aware, just like I am on stage, of the attention economy, where you will be judged on whether or not somebody makes it to the end of that interview. And remember, I don’t want to do to my guest what has been done to me so often, like if I don’t get from you what I need, this thing I’m trying to do over here is not going to work. I refuse to turn my subjects into prey.

Do you feel an added pressure because you’re already established in a different field? I feel like there’s a sense of, “Well, any star can have a podcast,” so you have to prove yourself more, and say, “I deserve to be in this space.”

One of my favorite things that I like to say is, and just follow me on my divergent thinking, I like to say, “I thinkCheris a great actress.” It sounds like the setup for a joke, but it isn’t. And people will say, “Well, why?” And I’ll say, “Because if you watch Cher act, you forget it’s Cher.’” Cher makes you forget she’s Cher. So my goal here is to make you forget that I’m me.

[My goal is] really to encourage the guest to trust that what I’m really after is to show the audience something about them. And so if I can accomplish that and you can forget my end in it and really walk away going, “Gee, I never thought that about that person he had on,” or “That’s cool, or I want to go check out their new record now because I wouldn’t have thought I would be interested and now I am,” that’s what I’m after.

Billy Corgan and Chloe Mendel with their kids on Halloween.Billy Corgan/Instagram

Billy Corgan/Instagram

How has having children changed your worldview?

Looking at my children made me realize that I have such a tremendous opportunity, and if I’m going to teach them about their own opportunity, I need to take mine seriously in a way that I wasn’t. They’ve really kind of straightened me out. It sobered me up like, “Wow, you still have a lot of life left and you still have a lot of opportunity and you really owe it to them and your wife to not play a game with that.'”

My son’s 9 years old, and he’s pretty conscious of who I am in the world. But I was trying to explain to him that he’s going to come across people in his life that are not going to think as highly of me as he does. What I was saying to him was, you have to trust your opinion of who I am, not the world’s opinion. I said, “Well honey, we’re a show business family. Mommy lives in public, I live in public, and to a certain extent, you live in public, and what we think of each other is far more valuable than what anybody says.”

source: people.com