Lollapalooza 1994

Lollapalooza 1994 saw The Smashing Pumpkins at the headlining spot. Originally Nirvana was scheduled to headline, reportedly being offered nearly $10 million to do it. However, Cobain turned it down, and the band officially dropped out of the festival on April 7, 1994. Kurt Cobain's body was discovered in Seattle the next day. Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, made guest appearances at several shows, usually taking time from The Smashing Pumpkins given to her by Billy Corgan, including the Philadelphia show at FDR Park.

Despite the added pressure on the Pumpkins following Nirvana's backing out of the festival and Cobain's subsequent death, Lollapalooza 1994 turned out to be one of the festival's most successful years, and reassured the Pumpkins' leadership in the rock scene.

The apotheosis of it all was Lollapalooza 94, which is kind of what has sent us careening into the Mellon Collie album. We're headlining the festival, and originally – let's not forget – it was supposed to be Nirvana, Pumpkins, Beasties. And obviously that didn't happen. So okay, we're headlining what became historically the biggest Lollapalooza ever. And there they are. There are the same football players that used to bully us in the hallways. Every other band in my estimation, and I don’t mean to throw shade, this is the way I read it at the time because this is the mindset I was in, everybody was cool with going along to get along. Because it was a wave, right? Let's just ride this wave. looked at it as like, 'No, you're the enemy and we are here to take you on.' And to this day, I still have people walk up to me at airports going, ‘man, I don’t know what that was about.' There are people to this day, and again I usually meet them at airports, who refuse to ever see the band or listen to the band after that show. You’re talking about forty-three shows, one was cancelled due to rain. So forty-two times, I took the mic and went after that audience.