Billy Corgan Makes Bold Prediction About the Future of Music Audio Ink Radio

Billy Corgan Makes Bold Prediction About the Future of Music

2025-03-06

Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins is making a big prediction about the future of music for certain bands making a comeback. – Author: Cat Badra, Photo via Ken Settle

Billy Corgan has made music history multiple times with his band, the Smashing Pumpkins. The group has made it onto the highly-coveted Billboard 100 chart multiple times with alternative rock hits such as “1979,” “Tonight, Tonight,” “Thirty-Three,” “Ava Adore” and “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.”

With Corgan’s success, one could say he has the knowhow to predict the future of music. Now, Corgan says that looking to the future of music, certain bands that have garnered some hate over the years are about to get really big again.

Billy Corgan’s Prediction for Music

Corgan appeared on the Tuesday, March 4, episode of The Joe Rogan Experience and talked about a lot of things. The conversation latest for about three hours, so they really left no stone unturned.

During part of the conversation, the two talked about the revival of bands such as Nickelback and Creed, who were once deemed not cool anymore and are now thriving once again.

While talking about these bands, Corgan said, “You’re about to see that Nickelback and Creed are about to go on a huge run of business. … They survived [the hate], and now comes the inevitable moment of, ‘It was really good’ … they wrote a lot of great songs.”

He also threw the Smashing Pumpkins into that conversation, seeming to state that he thinks the band will get more respect down the road. “It’s kind of how I feel about my musical life,” he said. “Time will tell my story much better than I did.”

Corgan also talked about the experience of seeing his peers sadly die and their legacies bringing their profile higher than ever. “It bothered me, because it felt unfair or it felt like I was being sort of made to pay for the sins of the people who are no longer here,” he said, adding, “particularly, in Gen X, we’ve had so many great talents die.”

The Pumpkins Are ‘Probably One of the Most Misunderstood Bands’

As he continued to talk about his life in music and the Pumpkins, Corgan said of the Pumpkins, “We’re probably one of the most misunderstood bands in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. That sounds like a wrestling statement, but it’s fairly accurate.” The wrestling reference makes sense, because Corgan is the owner of the National Wrestling Alliance.

He also commented that he thinks the Pumpkins being misunderstood “has a lot to do with the issues of Gen X, and it has a lot to do with a relationship that I set into motion with the media when I was a very young person, playing kind of a funny game — like doing my own my own version of Andy Kaufman or Bob Zmuda…”

He added that he didn’t know the “coming culture” was poised to “almost be attracted to people who are willing to immolate themselves on the public stage. Most people who are attracted to fame, they want to run towards the the shiny part of it. I was attracted to the non-shiny part, which is, ‘Okay, I’ll light myself on fire and let’s see what happens,’ or ‘I’ll light you on fire, and let’s see what happens…'” Let’s hope nobody really lights themselves on fire. Just saying.

Corgan’s talk with Rogan is fascinating, to say the least. He’s still an influencer in the music world and continues to make new music, even decades after the Pumpkins first broke out in the 1990s.

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Cat Badra

Meet the expert - Cat Badra is a music writer for Audio Ink Radio and a range of other music, sports and lifestyle publications. She's a graduate of Michigan State University with a master's degree in theater and speech. Contact her at cat@audioinkradio.com.

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