Billy Corgan has never shied away from taking jabs at critically adored rock heroes, and you might even remember the time he lashed out at Pavement a couple of years back. Now the Smashing Pumpkins head is back at it again, this time insulting Radiohead in a new interview.
While discussing how he is received by the public at large, Corgan laid this bit of wisdom on Antiquiet:
From '89 on I've had people tell me who I am. And they pick my personality as if it's a one or two-dimensional thing, and I'm more like a tetrahedron. I can't think of any people outside of Weird Al Yankovic who have both embraced and pissed on rock more than I have. Obviously there's a level of reverence, but there's also a level of intelligence to even know what to piss on. 'Cause I'm not pissing on Rainbow. I'm not pissing on Deep Purple. But I'll piss on fuckin' Radiohead, because of all this pomposity. This value system that says Jonny Greenwood is more valuable than Ritchie Blackmore. Not in the world I grew up in, buddy. Not in the world I grew up in.
So I find myself defending things. Is Ritchie Blackmore a better guitar player than me and Jonny Greenwood? Yes. Have we all made contributions? Yes. I'm not attacking that. I'm attacking the pomposity that says this is more valuable than that. I'm sick of that. I'm so fucking sick of it, and nobody seems to tire of it.
Perhaps Radiohead are part of the generation of "stripper[s]" and "poseurs" Corgan complained about a few months back?
Then again, Corgan accusingRadiohead anyone of pompousness is a little dubious, considering that this is the same guy who is working on a spiritual memoir, plus a 44-song mega-album called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope.
Smashing Pumpkins will release their album-within-an-album Oceania on June 19 through Universal.
While discussing how he is received by the public at large, Corgan laid this bit of wisdom on Antiquiet:
From '89 on I've had people tell me who I am. And they pick my personality as if it's a one or two-dimensional thing, and I'm more like a tetrahedron. I can't think of any people outside of Weird Al Yankovic who have both embraced and pissed on rock more than I have. Obviously there's a level of reverence, but there's also a level of intelligence to even know what to piss on. 'Cause I'm not pissing on Rainbow. I'm not pissing on Deep Purple. But I'll piss on fuckin' Radiohead, because of all this pomposity. This value system that says Jonny Greenwood is more valuable than Ritchie Blackmore. Not in the world I grew up in, buddy. Not in the world I grew up in.
So I find myself defending things. Is Ritchie Blackmore a better guitar player than me and Jonny Greenwood? Yes. Have we all made contributions? Yes. I'm not attacking that. I'm attacking the pomposity that says this is more valuable than that. I'm sick of that. I'm so fucking sick of it, and nobody seems to tire of it.
Perhaps Radiohead are part of the generation of "stripper[s]" and "poseurs" Corgan complained about a few months back?
Then again, Corgan accusing
Smashing Pumpkins will release their album-within-an-album Oceania on June 19 through Universal.
