Billy Corgan talks about going solo

updated 2:16 p.m. ET June 22, 2005

NEW YORK - All things being perfect, Billy Corgan would never have released a solo album.

All things being perfect, Billy Corgan still would have been churning out hits as part of the seminal ’90s angst-rock band he founded, the Smashing Pumpkins — or at the very least, would have been readying a follow-up album with the band that followed it, Zwan.

But things have never been perfect for Corgan, the brainchild behind both groups and one of the more mercurial figures in the rock world. He famously smashed the Pumpkins into pieces in 2000 after the band had sold more than 20 million records worldwide with their pathos-laden songs; the relationship between the foursome had disintegrated and Corgan’s artistic path for the band was not replicating past pop success. In 2003, he formed Zwan, but that band lasted only a year.

This week, Corgan has decided to step away from the band format with his solo debut, “TheFutureEmbrace.” But it’s not his only individual project. Besides a book of poetry that he released last year, “Blinking with Fists,” Corgan has been writing about his life on his Web site — detailing everything from the childhood abuse he says suffered at the hands of his father and stepmother to his very adult battles with depression and other demons.

Corgan — a tall and striking figure with his shaved head, pale skin and piercing blue eyes — spoke about putting his life story on the Web, his new album and why a Smashing Pumpkins reunion wouldn’t be what you expect in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

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AP: When did you decide to start writing your autobiography and put it on the Internet?

Corgan: It’s something I thought about for two years as far as writing my life story. I went through various scenarios — should I put out a book? You’re first thought is conventional thought ... like, this is how it’s done, and how much, and what’s it for, and what can I say, what can’t I say and all that. So after thinking about it like that, every time, I would come up to what can I say, what can’t I say, I would get bummed out.

AP: Why?

Corgan: Anytime you take money for something, then it opens the door to another whole range of topics. Like when Jose Canseco put out the steroids book, the first thing they did was to attack him and say that he’s lying because he’s making money; he’s saying these bad things because he’s going to make more money. So that gets into a credibility issue. But to me, it you take away the money, then what’s the credibility issue? Then it’s personal motivation. Is it malice, is it truthful — what is it? I don’t have justify it in any way, shape or form. There’s no justification, there’s no catch all.

AP: What’s been the feedback?

Corgan: Amazingly positive. The only ones who seem to have a problem with it are males. No negative feedback from women at all. Zero. Only guys.

AP: Why do you think guys have a problem?

Corgan: Because they get uncomfortable with guys being sensitive. They get really uncomfortable. Guys are brutalized in a certain way, even if they’re not brutalized physically. They’re sort of pummeled on the feeling end. I faced the same thing in the beginning of the Pumpkins, because the Pumpkins was so far ahead of the sensitive curve ... talking about child abuse, things like that. People were very uncomfortable with that.

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