Coming off the 2023 release of the album, Atum, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan sits down with Zane Lowe for an intimate interview discussing the band’s latest music, his inspirations, and career.

Photo Credit: Alyssa Fried

The interview took place in L.A and Corgan reflected on his first time moving back in 1989 and overlooking the cityscape with dreams to make something out of himself. Also taking time to discuss his relationships with other artists and Lowe even introducing Corgan to up and coming Portland rapper, Yeat. Corgan reminisced how when his career was first coming into fruition, “everybody was the enemy”, giving his critiques on how comparison is a natural downside to the music industry.

Corgan also touched on how he felt when Kurt Cobain passed with the statement, “When Kurt died, I cried because I lost my greatest opponent. I want to beat the best. I don’t want to win the championship because it’s just me and a bunch of gabronis, to use a wrestling term, it’s like, Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest sports competitor I’ll ever see in my lifetime? I mean, you want to talk about an alpha. That guy wanted to win the valet tip. You know what I mean?”

Even giving his opinions on the evolution of Radiohead’s career, admitting his original lack of respect for the band’s artistry before he eventually realized the genius behind their successful mainstream crossover. He stated, “So credit, because really Radiohead figured out the world that was coming pretty much before every band on the planet, and they reaped the reward of that and did a lot of great work, in essence, anticipating this dissociative world… I was making music for a world that was basically dead and dying, but I was the last to get the memo. So I really credit them with figuring that out.”

The interview runs for about 46 minutes and Corgan touches on an array of topics such as politics, the industry, grief and the full video can be found on YouTube.