If Billy Corgan doesn't want to play a song he doesn't play it

The frontman of Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan, anyone who knows him knows, he is a guy who goes straight on his own path. So it is not surprising that in an interview with the hard rock magazine Kerrang he declared that in concert he is not moved by fans' requests and does not feel forced to play his band's classics if he doesn't feel like it.

These are his very direct words: “I don't play any songs that I don't want to play.

I don't care if they're classic or not. If I don't want to play them, I just don't play them. I don't tell the audience things like, 'Well, I have to play it for you.'” Corgan, however, added, partially correcting the point: “It's not a bad thing that fans want to listen to the songs they love (…) but bands can't live in the past. It's the death of every artist.”

He then continued with his thought by giving an example: “It's hard to explain if you haven't experienced it. Because it's the classic thing where there's a little devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, the devil says, 'Hey , if you play these five extra songs that people want to hear, you'll have a really easy night and no one will be mad at you.' But that's not why you're up there. You have to remember that there's this other part of the audience that wants to see you today.”

Billy Corgan However, he explained with great common sense that, in his opinion, the key to the success of a concert is to find the right balance between old and new material, a concept that he understood only after many years. “It takes a moment to understand the difference between, 'Hey, I love what you do. I'm here, I paid my money, I got the babysitter. I'm looking for something, can you give it to me? Because I really love that music and I love that era of my life', an artist feels like they have to serve something they don't want to serve. Like they're chained to a past or a legacy. I'm empathizing with the audience and trying to figure out what I would like to see from a band from the audience's point of view , this allowed me to soften and realize that perhaps my position was a little too… artistic.”