Billy Corgan

William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, primary songwriter, singer, and only constant member of alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan is credited with helping popularize the alternative rock genre. Considered as one of the finest and most underrated rock guitarists of the 1990s, Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". He has also been the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance since 2017.

Corgan formed the Smashing Pumpkins in Chicago in 1988 alongside guitarist James Iha, with bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin joining soon after. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band to commercial success and critical acclaim throughout the 1990s. After their break-up in 2000, Corgan and Chamberlin started a new band called Zwan; after the band's demise, he released the collection of poetry Blinking with Fists (2004) and the solo album TheFutureEmbrace (2005) before reforming Smashing Pumpkins in 2007. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released new albums and toured extensively. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest solo album, Cotillions, was released in 2019.

Corgan co-founded Resistance Pro Wrestling in 2011. He joined TNA Wrestling in 2015 and became its president in 2016, but left a few months later. He purchased the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 2017; thereafter, Corgan made it his primary focus in professional wrestling.

William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the elder child of Martha Louise Maes (1947–1996) and guitarist William Dale Corgan (1947–2021). He is of English, Irish, and Scottish descent on his father's side, and Belgian, Flemish, and Italian descent on his mother's side. He grew up Catholic and has a younger brother. His parents divorced in 1970. Billy said he went to live with his great-grandmother, and then his grandmother. Next he and his brother went to live with his father and new wife (a flight attendant whom his father had married) in Glendale Heights, Illinois, a Chicago suburb 22 miles west of the city. His father was a musician and was often away; when Billy was nine his father and stepmother (whom Billy considers to be his mother) split.

Billy alleges that his father was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, Jesse, who had special needs as a child. When Billy's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived with their stepmother. Billy said his father was a "drug dealing, gun-toting musician mad man". Although William Corgan Sr. negatively impacted his son's childhood, Corgan said he came to have tremendous respect for his father's musicianship.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.