Ongoing History Daily: Billy Corgan’s father almost derailed the Smashing Pumpkins
Our parents want the best for us so they’re always offering advice, sometimes based on their own personal experience. Billy Corgan’s father, William Corgan Sr.—was a guitarist and singer himself. Mr. Corgan was into jazz and often was away from home on tour.
When Billy aced a special musical tone test—no one in Illinois ever scored higher than him in this test—his school principal told Billy’s parents that he needed to get into a music program immediately. But when Mr. Corgan read the letter saying that his song was probably a musical savant, he dismissed everything, saying that it was “too expensive” a pursuit to follow. Fortunately,
Billy was too intrigued by this gift he had, so he essentially defied his father and took up music anyway.
