The Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan has hit out at various ‘greatest guitar player’ lists for not including him or ranking him at a low spot.
The ‘Cherub Rock’ singer opened up about how “most people don’t even recognise my contributions as a guitar player” in a new interview with Guitar World. The frontman specifically referenced ‘greatest guitar player’ lists and how he is often overlooked during those rankings.
“I usually don’t even make those lists,” he told the outlet. “Or they’ll put me behind somebody who I could play circles around. I don’t mean to denigrate the people in front of me… but come on, you know?”
He continued: “I’m writing the song, lyrics, melodies, arrangements and playing most of the complicated guitar. And I’m capable of doing a solo on top of that. I think that’s hard for people to process… They don’t want to believe one person can do all those things.”
Corgan reflected on the past and how when people previously discovered how much he actually played on a Smashing Pumpkins track, he found that they had not reacted well, saying that if he had admitted to playing to the majority of the instrumentals on a song, he’d be viewed as “the evil guy who wasn’t letting my band play on the records”.
The musician shared: “I’ve played on stage with George Lynch and Uli Jon Roth, two of the greatest guitar players in history. I sat for hours across from Eddie Van Halen at 5150 with my jaw open, watching Eddie play, okay? My father was a great guitar player. I’ve got no problem acknowledging some of the greatest guitar players ever.”
He continued: “I would never even put myself in their company, [but] there’s a lot of people who pretend to play guitar. I certainly have no problem believing I’m better than a lot of them.”
The Smashing Pumpkins’ latest release was ‘Aghori Mhori Mei‘, their 13th studio album. It came out exclusively as a digital release, with a physical release to follow on November 22.
‘Aghori Mhori Mei’ serves as the follow-up to 2023’s ‘ATUM’, which NME praised as a “bombastic space-rock opera” in a four-star review: “As albums go, ‘ATUM’ is an ambitious body of work and does ask a lot of its audience. But there’s also plenty on here to please any diehard Pumpkins fan.”
In other news, Corgan’s is set to embark on a solo Australian tour. Backed by The Delta Riggs, Corgan will visit the continent in winter, kicking off in Adelaide on December 1. Check out a full list of dates below and visit here to purchase tickets.
Billy Corgan’s Australia 2024 tour dates are:
DECEMBER
01 – Adelaide – Hindley St Music Hall
03 – Melbourne – Palais Theatre
04 – Sydney – Enmore Theatre
06 – Melbourne – Good Things Festival
07 – Sydney – Good Things Festival
08 – Brisbane – Good Things Festival
