1985–1987: Early career Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to
St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (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 and lived 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.
1988–2000: 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". The trio began to play together at local clubs with a
drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the
Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer
Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988. The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. The album was nominated for seven
Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "
1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on
Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on
Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since. On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist
Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a
heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's
Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when
alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet,
Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million in the US). Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released
Machina/The Machines of God, a
concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before;
Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for
Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former
Hole bassist
Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band released
Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet and broke up at the end of the year, playing their last show on December 2, 2000, at the
Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career Following a brief stint touring with
New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band
Zwan with Corgan's old friend
Matt Sweeney in late 2001. The lineup was completed with guitarist
David Pajo and bassist
Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a
folk and
gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album,
Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally breaking up in September 2003. In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his
MySpace page under the title
The Confessions of Billy Corgan, discussing subjects from his troubled childhood, failed marriage, and dynamics behind the breakups of both his prior bands. He commented that the Smashing Pumpkins endured the departure of Wretzky, who he called "a mean spirited drug addict", only to break up in 2000 largely because of Iha's desire to leave the group. Corgan called his former Zwan bandmates Sweeney, Pajo and Lenchantin "dirty, filthy people who have no self-respect or class...never have I met such creatures who feel so entitled to all yet contribute so little, not only to my life but the culture and the world in general...the world is on the brink of wars and mass terror, and their main concern is whether or not their indy friends still like them." In late 2004, Corgan published
Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on
The New York Times Best Seller List. He had made his debut as a poet on September 17, 2003, presenting at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an
electronic/
shoegaze/
alternative rock sound for his first solo album,
TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by
Bon Harris of
Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through
Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included
Linda Strawberry,
Brian Liesegang and
Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. The tour was also controversial in Australia, with Corgan antagonising the audience and storming off the stage when Smashing Pumpkins songs were yelled out as requests. Prior to recording
TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic
ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion. On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members
Ginger Pooley (bass) and
Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled
Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the
Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP
American Gothic and the singles "
G.L.O.W." and "
Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan chose to continue under the name. In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band
Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late
Sky Saxon of
the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-
Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the
Electric Prunes bassist
Mark Tulin,
Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist
Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator
Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist
Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer
Mike Byrne, and
Jane's Addiction guitarist
Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album,
Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist
Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album"
Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014. On May 15, 2014, Corgan released
AEGEA, a new solo record of experimental recordings he made in 2007. Limited to 250 vinyl copies, the album was mostly sold online, with a few copies sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in
Highland Park, a suburb northwest of Chicago. On July 25, 2014, Corgan also released the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014, much in the vein of
AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs. During the summer 2014, he recorded the Smashing Pumpkins's ninth studio album,
Monuments to an Elegy, with
Tommy Lee and
Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014. In October 2017, he released a new solo album titled
Ogilala. In July 2018, the Smashing Pumpkins embarked on a reunion tour, the
Shiny and Oh So Bright Tour, with a focus on performing material from their first five studio albums. The lineup consists of himself,
James Iha,
Jimmy Chamberlin, and
Jeff Schroeder. Former bassist
D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup, reportedly due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. Wretzky has stated that Corgan offered her a contract but later retracted the offer, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, each party attacking each other with biting remarks. On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album
Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart." On July 14, 2022, he and his partner, Chloe Mendel, announced that they would host a livestream charity show on July 27 to benefit the victims of the July 4 Highland Park, Illinois, shooting. ==Professional wrestling career==