Billy Corgan has made a number of incendiary comments over the years, and this latest comment is interesting, to say the least.
Corgan recently participated in an interview with Zane Lowe. During the interview, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman touched on some of the major artists of the ’90s that impacted him. One of those artists was U2, who had quite a prolific decade. With the new millennium, however, U2 was clearly looking for a change.
Enter Corgan.
The singer recalls being in Dublin around 2000 and visiting Bono at his home. Corgan says the two of them stayed up all night, and in the morning, Bono wanted to play some new U2 music for him. Since they were the only two people in the house that were awake at the time, they went outside and got in a car to listen to this music.
Corgan says, “So, it’s me and him freezing in the driveway, and he pop in, and he’s playing me what became the ‘It’s a Beautiful Day’ album, and it’s not all the way there, but sort of there.”
The album featuring “Beautiful Day” was, of course, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, which was a commercial and critical success. It’s sold over 12 million copies worldwide and netted U2 seven Grammy Awards. Among them were Song of the Year and Record of the Year for “Beautiful Day.”
Corgan says while he and Bono were listening to the recordings, “[Bono] goes, ‘Tell me honestly what you think.’ I’m like, ‘You really want me to give you my opinion?’ … And I told him what I thought. They actually used my advice! He let me know later, ‘Hey, we used your advice.’”
Corgan didn’t detail his exact advice, but this soundbite has already led to some very funny headlines. The best comes via The Line of Best Fit, which is, “Billy Corgan Confirms U2’s ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’ Album Was All His Fault.”