Billy Corgan

Billy Corgan is an American musician, singer-songwriter and producer best known as the frontman, guitarist and primary songwriter of the alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan is the son of blues guitarist William Corgan Sr. He spent his childhood in Chicago and later moved between family members before living with his father and stepmother in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan began playing guitar at 14 and attended Glenbard North High School, graduating in 1985.

Corgan formed the goth rock band The Marked in 1985 before moving to Florida with the group. After The Marked broke up, he returned to Chicago and worked at a record store, where he met guitarist James Iha. Together they formed The Smashing Pumpkins in 1988 with bassist D’arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The band became one of the defining alternative rock acts of the 1990s.

Corgan’s notable albums with The Smashing Pumpkins include Gish (1991), Siamese Dream (1993), Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995), Adore (1998) and Machina/The Machines of God (2000). The band has won two Grammy Awards, both for Best Hard Rock Performance for “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” and “The End Is the Beginning Is the End.” He also went n to release the solo albums TheFutureEmbrace (2005), Ogilala (2017) and Cotillions (2019).

Corgan married artist and art conservator Chris Fabian in 1993, and they divorced in 1997. He was later romantically linked to stars including photographer Yelena Yemchuk, Emilie Autumn, Jessica Simpson and Jessica Origliasso. He began dating fashion designer Chloé Mendel in 2012. They tied the knot in 2023, and share three children: son Augustus Juppiter (born in 2015), daughter Philomena Clementine (born in 2018) and daughter Juno Delphine (born in 2025).