Billy Corgan has voiced his frustration about being frequently underrated as a guitarist, pointing out that many players he feels he could “play circles around” often rank higher on various lists.
The Chicago-born musician is recognized for many achievements: he’s a visionary who significantly influenced rock music, a talent comparable to Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, and the bandleader of the Smashing Pumpkins, which has thrived for decades. However, descriptions like “an awesome guitar player” are rarely attributed to the 57-year-old songwriter, frontman, and guitarist.
In a recent interview with Guitar World, Corgan acknowledged that his guitar skills are often overlooked in broader discussions. He noted that many guitarist rankings, such as the infamous list released by Rolling Stone last year, completely omit him. “Most people don’t even recognize my contributions as a guitar player. They don’t even assume I’m the one playing a lot of the guitar,” he said.
He continued, “You have these silly lists that come out about the greatest guitar players; I usually don’t even make those lists. Or they’ll put me behind somebody who I could play circles around. I don’t mean to denigrate the person in front of me, but come on, you know? I’m enough of a guitar player to know who’s a great guitar player.”
Corgan added, “Once you go beyond, let’s call it ‘The Zakk Wyldes and Dimebag Darrells and the truly great Randy Rhoadses,’ there’s a lot of people who pretend to play guitar. I certainly have no problem believing I’m better than a lot of them.”
Offering a potential reason for his underrated status, Corgan explained, “If I’m being frank about it – and maybe this isn’t the best way to do it – but people have a hard time understanding that, as it pertains to the Smashing Pumpkins, I’m writing the songs, lyrics, melodies, arrangements, and playing most of the complicated guitar. And that I’m capable of doing a solo on top of that. I think that’s hard for people to process.”
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