Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has admitted he was suicidal during the recording of the band’s landmark album ‘Siamese Dream‘, and was constantly fantasising about his own death.
“I was suicidal, and I’d been plotting my own death for about two months, and if you’ve ever read anything about the warning signs of suicide one of them is you give away all your stuff, and I’d given away all my stuff, I gave away all my records, I started giving away my guitars,” Corgan said.
“I was fantasising about my own death, I started thinking what my funeral would be like and what music would be played, I was at that level of insanity.”
On ‘Siamese Dream’ itself, Corgan has insisted the 1993 record does contain an element of ‘fun’, despite the dark themes which pervade large portions of the LP.
“Even though it wasn’t the one that sold the most, it’s the one that seems to have come through the best,” he continued. “As dark a records as ‘Siamese Dream’ is, there’s a lot of fun in it, it’s almost like we’re kind of laughing at how stupid the whole thing is. It’s like, here’s my pop song about suicide and here’s my epic song about child abuse, and here’s my big middle finger to the indie world.”
Corgan was speaking to BBC Radio 1‘s Zane Lowe last night (November 21st), as part of the DJ’s new Masterpieces series – albums from Dizzee Rascal, Amy Winehouse and Oasis will also be featured during the run. UK residents can listen again to last night’s edition through the BBC’s iPlayer service.