Billy Corgan

Oh, well, thank you.

Which I think is rare because, you know, rock is performative, you know.

Not every heavy metal singer believes they're going to hell, you know what I mean?

But there's an earnestness in your musical life.

Oh, thank you.

I really do.

Well, I grew up with, you know, look, growing up in Chicago in the 1970s and listening to that radio, it provided a very high watermark when the bands that were successful from the Chicago area, Yourselves, Styx, Cheap Trick...

You know, it's hard to explain to people who don't understand, but there was an earnest quality to Midwestern music.

Maybe it was born of the system at the time where, and I want to talk about it, like how you guys would have to go on the road and kind of make your name in clubs.

Yeah.

Just because you had a record deal, that was just the beginning of the hassle.

You had to really go out and beat your brains out on those road circuits.

And something about those albums really resonated with the working class ethos of the time.

You know, there was no shame of being earnest and hardworking.

Right.

And if it meant, you know, you put in a good week's work and on Friday night you're going to go out and have a good time and still fall in love.

It really resonated with the world that I grew up in.

And what was crazy to me about that is I believed in that like it was a simple fact, like music that I grew up with, including yours, was like there was no shame in being straightforward about what working people go through and what the dreams of, you know, Bruce Springsteen is probably the greatest American songwriter to encapsulate the working class ethos converted in aspiration.

Yeah, I'm working on my car, and I got the girl in the corner, but I still want to get out of here.

Right.