Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan refuses to indulge fans' nostalgia for past hits

IN the 1990s, Billy Corgan wrote some of the most important alternative rock tunes and arguably two of the genre's best albums. Just don't ask him to play them.

billy corgan smashing pumpkins

IN the 1990s, Billy Corgan wrote some of the most important alternative rock tunes and arguably two of the genre's best albums. Just don't ask him to play them.

On Smashing Pumpkins' last visit to Australia in 2010, Corgan taunted crowds, limiting his set to mostly new(er) material, argued with fans who screamed out requests and often ranted on both subjects.

As the band prepares to return to Australia for the Splendour in the Grass Festival, the outspoken frontman explains why he's not a jukebox and, even in his 40s, Billy Corgan refuses to play it safe.

"My job is not to be an oldies act or what they call it over here, a nostalgic act," he says. "Sometimes I run my mouth and I shouldn't. I should just smile like everyone would suggest that I do, but there just comes a point when it's really a disservice to the legacy of the band.

"It's not like the band was a pop band, you know what I mean? I was in an alternative rock band for a reason."

It is not that Corgan hates his older albums. His set lists are often "sprinkled" with some of his iconic hits such as Today, Bullet With Butterfly Wings and the anthemic 1979.

What the outspoken singer dislikes is when fans lose the passion to immerse themselves in his new recordings.

"Fans think you're there to be a jukebox," he says.

"When we were on the Mellon Collie album tour I had people down the front shouting for Siamese Dream songs.

"The difference now is that when you're older the expectation is now you're supposed to stop being rebellious and you're supposed to become the museum version of yourself, I guess."

Corgan has always been the defiant rock star.

YouTube is littered with countless videos of the singer's on-stage rants, which have become a staple of any Smashing Pumpkins show.

Sharon Osborne affectionately referred to him as "a six foot baldy twat in a dress" and Corgan called fans who want to hear the hits "jerkos". So what does he think of the idea of playing the old albums in full?

"Absolutely not ... ultimately it's at the death of everything new," he says.

Despite his unwillingness to perform most of the material live, Corgan is certainly happy to release it.

Last year, fans received deluxe re-issues of 1991's Gish and the seminal 1993 album Siamese Dream.

This year they can expect more re-issues, including deluxe versions of 1994's B-sides compilation Pisces Iscariot, 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, 1996's The Aeroplane Flies High Box Set and, of course, the release of the band's new album, Oceania, on June 19.

Corgan says Oceania embodies all facets of his work, but with more immediacy.

When the conversation turns to another rock star who refuses to be told what to do, Axl Rose, it's no surprise that Corgan sympathises with the lead singer who chose to boycott Guns N' Roses' recent Hall of Fame induction.

If Smashing Pumpkins were to receive the same honour, Corgan, too, admits it would be problematic for him to reunite with his former band mates.

"You have to understand I've been sued by my former band mates," he says. "I've had them cost me money, crazy amounts of money, over dumb s---.

"They don't want to participate in things that involve fans, but they still want to make their money because they were around when stuff happened."