Billy Corgan Defends Friendship With Marilyn Manson, Compares Himself To Kanye West, And Explains Resentment Toward “The Hipster Writer Class”

Right now, Corgan's band the Smashing Pumpkins — the the in the name seems to be important to Corgan — are experiencing a bit of a resurgence. Their '90s hits are all over TikTok. They're touring arenas to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness.

They reunited with their Siamese Dream/Gish producer Butch Vig to record "Black Stars," a soundtrack song for the upcoming Hunger Games movie. Olivia Rodrigo performed with them at Lollapalooza. And now, Corgan is the latest guest on the New York Times Popcast.

He's got some things that he'd like to say. Corgan seems to relish the chance to go toe-to-toe with a coastal music critic like my friend Jon Caramanica and to ask him whether, in his own words, "Has my work been fairly assessed by your critical class?" Along the way, he veers into digressions about other divisive stars, including his '90s alt-rock peer Marilyn Manson. Corgan remains close to Manson years after many women accused Manson of sexual assault.

Last year, Manson appeared at Corgan's birthday party, and the two of them posed for photos together. When Caramanica asked Corgan about that, Corgan said: I think it's a valid question, and I thnk that ultimately, as a Christian person, you have to — how can I put it? You have to stand by your friends, but that doesn't mean you can't have an opinion, and it doesn't mean you're not critical.

In his case, and I'm not here to adjudicate it, but the DA looked at the case for five years. In some cases, I knew personal things behind the scenes that are not in the public sphere. I personally didn't feel that he was guilty with the things he was being charged with, and ultimately the fact that the DA didn't pursue — so basically, the person that I knew, and the way it all kinda went down, even though it was an elongated process, was commensurate with the person that I knew.

I can't be there for everything. But I guess it's one of those things where I don't want the world to tell me who my friends are and who I should associate with. That's politically, socially.