{"id":436563,"date":"2026-02-20T18:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T18:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/436563\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T18:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T18:46:11","slug":"the-greatest-band-of-all-time-according-to-billy-corgan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/436563\/","title":{"rendered":"The greatest band of all time, according to Billy Corgan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Billy<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Billy Corgan)<\/p>\n

Fri 20 February 2026 13:00, UK <\/p>\n

According to Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan<\/a>, there\u2019s only one rock band on the planet that every other rock star name-checks. \u201cSo what does that tell you?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Looking at Corgan\u2019s tapas of influences, this could literally mean anybody. As someone who loves to blend different styles and genres, many of Corgan\u2019s influences stretch far and wide, covering everything you might expect, from 1960s legends to pioneers of gothic rock.\u00a0In 1990, he gave a glimpse into his main heroes, telling Tribune he was into \u201c\u201860s mega-rock bands like Cream, Black Sabbath, the Stooges, Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin,\u201d also known as \u201cyour monsters of rock\u201d.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s easy to detect many of those throughlines in much of the Pumpkins\u2019 material, one of the biggest things Corgan learned from his heroes was that standing out was never a bad thing. In fact, in the early days, he recalls being told that they\u2019d never make it if they stayed in Chicago, a remark that he naturally ignored and proved wrong as a result.<\/p>\n

Corgan has had to operate against the grain in many other ways, too. In fact, years back, he discussed his gripe with modern technology, effectively saying that it was shaping the modern musical landscape into a place where certain people were favoured over others. In a world where success in music is a massive numbers game<\/a>, his views make complete sense.<\/p>\n

However, one of the bands that taught him the value of paying no mind to all those metrics that others seem to care so much about is one that he claims every rock icon name-checks at every given opportunity; Rush. In his view, Rush were never conventionally successful; they weren\u2019t prolific on the covers of magazines or in any other sense, they, in Corgan\u2019s view, existed solely for their fans.<\/p>\n

This is a valuable observation in today\u2019s landscape \u2013 and any in history, for that matter. When artists look and feel authentic, they have organic appeal and are far more likely to have a longer cultural impact and withstand the test of time. According to Corgan, Rush\u2019s ability to be great without all the pretentious embellishments is what makes them one of the greatest bands of all time.<\/p>\n

Discussing this with Track Star\u2019s Testing Billy Corgan\u2019s Knowledge, the musician explained why they rose to the top, doing what they did best. \u201cThere\u2019s so much love for them, I can\u2019t even imagine the emotion that\u2019s going to be in the room with them when they start playing,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re one of the greatest bands of all time, and they\u2019re the ultimate hipster-killers. Every rock star name-checks that band.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corgan also claimed to be a \u201chipster-killer\u201d himself back in the day, likely resonating with certain bands whose reputation or public perception clashes with how they actually are or how their music sounds. With Rush, he clearly also enjoys the fact that they\u2019re secretly cool in an if you know, you know sort of way, a lot like how Smashing Pumpkins come across from the insider\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

But mainly, Corgan respects the fact that, no matter what people think of Rush, they can\u2019t be ignored. When the music is good, it speaks for itself. As he put it, \u201cYou can say, \u2018This band was marginalised, what was it?\u2019 It doesn\u2019t matter. At some point, they\u2019re there, and somebody has to explain why they\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Billy Corgan) Fri 20 February 2026 13:00, UK According to Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[35653,96,128,46038,35654,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-436563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-billy-corgan","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-rush","12":"tag-smashing-pumpkins","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}