Pumpkins Want 20th Anniversary to Be a Smash

Corgan hopes to be seen as more than a 'reunion band'
By Michael Roston,  Newser User
Posted Oct 18, 2008 9:24 AM CDT
Pumpkins Want 20th Anniversary to Be a Smash
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins performing on the Main Stage at the Reading Festival in England, Sunday Aug. 26, 2007.   (AP Photo / Yui Mok)

The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins start their 20th-anniversary tour next month, shrugging off the blasé reception that met their 2006 tour. Frontman Billy Corgan—who admits the group's breakup in 2000 was "a total mistake"—tells Rolling Stone that fans who attend multiple shows in some cities will be rewarded with a different set each night.  "It's like putting on a spacesuit again," he said of playing some songs for the first time in years.

A concept album will follow next year. And to Corgan, it's important to show that the Chicago-based alternative rockers are more than a reunion band. "You think, 'I'm 41 years old, and I've earned some level of trust,'" he said. "And you find out you're just like everybody else. You're no better than Bon Jovi." (More Billy Corgan stories.)

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