Billy Corgan 1997-02-19

Live with Regis and Kathy Lee
Interview of Billy Corgan
Artist	Billy Corgan
Date	February 19, 1997
Medium	Television
Venue	WABC-TV Studios
Location	New York, NY, US
Venue type	TV Studio

Billy Corgan appears on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, ostensibly to promote Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and the band's upcoming appearance at the Grammy Awards.

Dialogue

Regis Philbin: Me and Billy Corgan are in constant contact.
Kathie Lee Gifford: Ever since you dumped Bobby DeNiro, Billy Corgan's been your guy.
Regis: I didn't dump Bobby.
Kathie Lee: You dumped him. You've been very rude.
Regis: (holding up copy of MCIS) I uh, this is the singing part of my life, you know what I mean?
Kathie Lee: Uh, yeah.
Regis: This is the biggest album I think they've ever made, it's absolutely sensational. But this guy is a hit all over the world.
Kathie Lee: Yes.
Regis: Today, as I came to work, you know there was a bigger crowd than usual outside the door and I said, “Well, isn’t it amazing? I still got it, these people are still waiting for me” and this is what happened. (clip plays of Billy getting out of a limo - maybe 30 fans screaming, Billy is stone faced until he turns away from fans and then smiles big) That was really.... Here’s Billy, he’s trying to get in right now.
Kathie Lee: He looks so happy to be here.
Regis: Heh heh heh, he is. (clip ends) And I thought they were for me!
Kathie Lee: I thought they were for me, so we were all wrong. They were for Billy! Shave your head, it might help.
Regis: Might help. [tape cuts]
[commercial]
(clip of Tonight, Tonight video plays coming out of commercial)
Regis: Sure are.
Kathie Lee: They’re so cutting edge!
Regis: Here’s a letter that Billy sent to us a couple years ago, you know, saying someday he would like to get on our show, he says “I wake up sometimes feeling grumpy and put on your show to cheer me up, be an honor to one day appear on your show” and that day is here, right now.
Kathie Lee: We’re delighted, how nice.
Regis: Yeah, it's been nearly ten years since the Smashing Pumpkins exploded to the top of the music chart. They have sold over 20 million albums worldwide.
Kathie Lee: Almost as much as you and I have.
Regis: Their newest CD, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, made its debut at number one for the best album in October, been there right on top ever since, here he is -
Kathie Lee: Nominated for an awful lot of Grammys coming up.
Regis: Yeah, I think seven...
Kathie Lee: Seven, I think.
Regis: ...here’s the lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan!
(Jellybelly plays in the background as Billy comes onstage and shakes hands with both hosts)
Regis: Hey Billy, how are ya, big guy?
BC: Hi. Hi, Kathie.
Kathie Lee: Hi Billy, nice to meet you.
Regis: Have a seat.
BC: (nervous) Heh heh heh.
Guy in crowd: Big guy!
Kathie Lee: What an entrance.
Regis: Billy, we made it together. You made the show, finally!
BC: I know, yeah.
Regis: It's good to have you here.
BC: Thank you.
Kathie Lee: Now we were were delighted to receive that note from you because we feel like we were just like (Valley Girl voice) so like out of it and fuddy duddy and stuff, (snorts), but then like when you then liked us, it was like wow!
BC: Well, when I told a lot of people that I was coming on the show, they were like “Oh, really?” So...
Kathie Lee: Oh, thanks for the compliment.
BC: ...I think a lot more people watch you than you would think.
Regis: Well, we hope this doesn’t hurt your career.
Kathie Lee: Yeah.
BC: Nah, listen if I haven't hurt it already.... Heh heh heh, you know.
Regis: Uh, Pumpkins just got back from a 18 month tour of the world, huh?
BC: Mm hmm. That's a little bit generous but, yeah, pretty much.
Regis: Yeah. And the reception was the same everywhere you went?
BC: Mmm, pretty much, yeah.
Regis: Yeah, it's really something how music communicates all over the world.
Kathie Lee: What’s it like, is it any different for you to perform in, say, Sri Lanka than it is to Detroit?
BC: No, I’ve actually found that it’s pretty much the same.
Regis: No, I found it's pretty much the same, especially because of music videos, I think more people understand and see you and it's amazing how many people around the world speak English, ‘cause we can't speak any, heh heh.
Kathie Lee: Had a cab driver the other day go, (offensive Indian accent) “Oh, that Billy Corgan, I am so crazy about him.” (normal voice) They love you everywhere!
BC: Well, you know....
Regis: So what’s it like there out there on the road, I mean...uh, the young girls still scream and yell and carry on, try to break into your room?
BC: You’re obsessed with the subject, yeah.
Kathie Lee: Well, no, you know what it is? He's so jealous, it's unbelievable.
Regis: Yeah. I really am.
Kathie Lee: He just said “If only in my next life I could come back as a rock star.”
Regis: Right.
BC: It - I mean all the cliches are there, but I'm pretty much just about music, so um.... (he shrugs)
Kathie Lee: Oh please, we’re supposed to believe that? Well, just because your father’s sitting here in the audience...
BC: Well, my family - my family is watching, so....
Kathie Lee: ...lookit, Billy Corgan's father is sitting with us right here in the audience and he’s just.... (camera shows a bald guy in the crowd who is not Bill Sr.) You’re cleaning up your act for him, hahahahaha!
BC: Thank you. Heh heh heh heh.
Regis: Don't let us shake you up, Billy, I'm here to protect you, believe me. But, you know, do people ask you -
BC: Well, I know she likes the long haired men.
Kathie Lee: No no no, babe...
Regis: Well, Fabio....
Kathie Lee: ...no no, grass never grows on the playground, you're looking very fine. ‘Course you’re no Fabio but uh, no, you look just fine.
BC: I have two names, so...heh heh heh.
Kathie Lee: Yeah, and see - and I could be your mother, so let’s, let’s just drop it at that.
Regis: Or the aunt that never left home, yeah.
Kathie Lee: Yes, yes, yes.
Regis: So what's the weirdest thing people have asked you to autograph?
BC: Um, well, pretty much everything from casts - you know, arm cast - to breasts to um, you name it. Cars....
Regis: No, you name it! Hahahahahaha!
Kathie Lee: Regis, sitting there -
BC: If you can think of it, I've been asked to sign it.
Regis: Really? Oh, Billy, Billy....
Kathie Lee: And you've never drawn the line and said “I don't do that, I'm all about music”?
BC: Uh, heh....
Regis: Billy, the Grammys are coming up. Grammys are coming up, you've been nominated for seven more Grammy awards, congratulations on that.
BC: Thank you.
Kathie Lee: Must be boring by now, you know, is it boring by now to be nominated by so many...?
BC: No, no, not at all, um, I mean we came from kind of a underground kind of music movement, we never thought we would be accepted into the mainstream or even be recognized by, you know, something like the Grammys, we just thought it would - it would never happen, so to us, it's all kind of icing on the cake.
Kathie Lee: But you hear so much about that, how they rocked the underground, sort of the alternative music people. Then it become accepted by mainstream [sic] and then you start getting all kinds of uh...criticism, basically for becoming commercial and selling out and that sort of thing.
BC: Well, I mean, a lot of that’s based in jealousy and a lot of it’s just based in...
Kathie Lee: You bet.
BC: ...people not really understanding. We come from Chicago which is, you know, kind of a working class city and um, we’ve never really viewed music as kind of um, you’re in and you’re out, you know, so it’s the same type of thing what you’re talking about with the show, you know...
Kathie Lee: Yeah.
BC: ...it’s like, if you like the show, you like it. It never really bothers me who likes my music as long as someone likes it.
Regis: Mm.
Kathie Lee: You’re just so normal.
BC: Well...
Kathie Lee: That's probably really bad for your image.
BC: ...you’re seeing me in the morning, heh heh...
Regis: That’s Billy [1-2 unintelligible words]!
BC: ...it’s too - it's very early.
Regis: We’ll be back!
(Tonight, Tonight plays as show goes to commercial)
[commercial]
(clip of Thirty-three video plays coming out of commercial)
Regis: That was Thirty-three, the music video Thirty - music videos are so important now, now do you have a hand in what is depicted on screen when you, when they make an uh...video version of your album?
BC: Yeah, um, originally we just thought, you know, you just pay someone bunch of money and then they - they kind of do it for you.
Regis: Sure.
BC: And then we realized that none of those people really knew what they were doing.
Regis: Mmhmm.
Kathie Lee: Mm.
BC: So then we found people that we could work with that would work in conjunction with us and uh....
Kathie Lee: Let it be your vision.
BC: Yeah, and that’s been - and it's surprising that the more of ourselves that we put in the videos, the more successful the videos have become...
Regis: Sure, absolutely.
BC: ...so it’s just made us try even harder now.
Regis: And the albums. Now, what about Grammy night? What are you going to wear?
BC: I don't know, I'm not real good with clothes.
Kathie Lee: Oh really?
Regis: Would you like to borrow this suit? Four buttons, Billy!
BC: It’s a little small -
Regis: Four buttons, baby, count ‘em!
BC: (laughing) It's a little small for me.
Kathie Lee: He’s got three. Now Billy, but you, you wear ‘em a little short (gesturing at his pants), is there a reason for that?
BC: Um, I can't find any that fit, really.
Kathie Lee: Yeah!
BC: I'm - I am 6-3, most people think I'm kind of small, but....
Kathie Lee: 6-3? Big boy. (Billy half heartedly salutes)
Regis: So Billy...
BC: Alright, yeah.
Regis: ...you know you’re a fan, you watch the show a lot. Have we influenced your music at all when you - wh-when do you write, in the morning? Do you write in the morning?
BC: See um, I used - ‘cause I usually write songs in the morning.
Regis: In the morning!
BC: I get up about, you know, eight or nine o'clock, so -
Regis: Exactly when we’re on!
Kathie Lee: That's early for a rock star, yes?
Regis: Now Billy, you can't - you can’t tell me that we didn't influence some of these songs!
BC: You have an indirect influence on this album.
Regis: That's right! Yeah yeah yeah. Which song in particular?
Kathie Lee: And they sold 20 million of them, Reege, so far or seven million of this (gesturing at the MCIS CD Regis is holding).
Regis: I know, which song in particular Regis and Kathie Lee enter here subliminally?
BC: I would say that song they were just showing, Thirty-Three probably.
Regis: Really, huh?
Kathie Lee: (fluffing her hair) My age!
Regis: And that's a big hit! And you just get up and these thoughts come to you and you put them down on...?
BC: I've found that I'm much more of a clear headed person in the morning and that as the day goes on and the phone calls come in and people bug me or whatever, I can't concentrate the same as when I get up in the morning.
Regis: Sure. Your mind is pure.
BC: Right, and so a lot of times I would get up in the morning and just put on your show and it just kind of relaxes me and then I would write, so....
Regis: Isn’t that nice, see that?
Kathie Lee: Call our attorney, I’m gonna get....
Regis: Absolutely.
BC: Yeah. Just don’t sue me.
Kathie Lee: Well, you know what, you’ve been a major, major influence on me too, Billy, and I just want you to have my Sentimental album and my Dreamship album, enjoy. (handing him CDs) Four copies sold worldwide! (laughing) Four copies.
BC: (looking at the albums) Who are these children?
Kathie Lee: I don't know, they’re - I got ‘em from central casting but uh....
Regis: You’re lucky you didn't get Cody's book too, but anyway...!
Kathie Lee: And I want you to direct my next video.
BC: Heh heh.
Regis: Here it is everybody, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, (studio version of Zero starts playing) right now number one hit around the world. Billy, it was a thrill to have you, thank you very much.
Kathie Lee: Really fun to meet you, thanks.
Regis: Right back with Claudia [tape cuts].