Billy Corgan

William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter.

He is best known as the co-founder, lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only constant member of alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins.

Corgan himself is credited with helping popularize the genre.

William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz and guitarist William Dale Corgan (1947–2021).

He was raised Catholic.

His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970.

His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in the Chicago suburb of Glendale Heights, Illinois.

Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally.

He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, Jesse, who had special needs as a child.

When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.

Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting musician [and] mad man".

Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.

Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school.

In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio.

However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished.

He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house.

Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off.

His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix but offered little other support, so Corgan taught himself to play the instrument.

His musical interests in high school included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick.

Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure.

He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student.

Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.

Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing).

Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father.

From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static.

He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.

Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins.

Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records".

He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network.

Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed.

Corgan formed the Smashing Pumpkins in Chicago in 1988 alongside guitarist James Iha, with bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin joining soon after.

Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band to commercial success and critical acclaim throughout the 1990s.

After their break-up in 2000, Corgan and Chamberlin started a new band called Zwan; after the band's demise, he released the collection of poetry Blinking with Fists (2004) and the solo album TheFutureEmbrace (2005) before reforming Smashing Pumpkins in 2007.

The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released new albums and toured extensively.

Corgan co-founded Resistance Pro Wrestling in 2011.

He joined TNA Wrestling in 2015 and became its president in 2016, but left a few months later.

He has also been the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance since 2017.

In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade.

He purchased the NWA in 2017.

His latest solo album, Cotillions, was released in 2019.