Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan and comedian Bill Burr finally met face to face to discuss the possibility that they might be half brothers based on family lore that their potential-shared father had multiple families. This saga has been in the works for a long time but came to light in the public back in November when Billy Corgan was a guest on Howie Mandel Does Stuff where Corgan revealed his stepmom once approached him about Bill Burr.
I first wrote about this story back in late November after Billy Corgan’s first appearance on Howie Mandel’s show when Cogan dropped the story about Bill Burr that he’d been sitting on for a long time. Funnily enough, Bill Burr would bring that up when they met face-to-face in the video below and Burr joked about how if he wanted that story public then he, the comedian, probably would’ve told it by now.
The gist is this: Billy Corgan‘s stepmom approached him at a family birthday party and asked him if he knew anything about Bill Burr. She then said there was a chance they were half-brothers and shared the same dad because their father was a traveling musician and potentially sired other kids out of wedlock.
Bill Burr And Billy Corgan Meet, Discuss Possibility They Are Half Brothers
Flash forward to this clip below and Howie Mandel had Bill Burr on as a guest and then surprised him by bringing out Billy Corgan. Bill Burr had jokes about Howie surprising him with a potentially life-changing meeting and honestly, I’m not sure I would’ve bene so calm and cool about it like Burr is. Corgan shows up after the 31-minute mark in this video. I’ve set the video to start at 31:44 for those who want to watch but read on below the video for quotes and a recap of what happened:
First off, we need to acknowledge how diabolical it would be if they really are brothers and the dad opted to name both of them William/Bill… Now to the video, Bill Burr slapping Billy Corgan with “did you ever think the fact that I never told that story, that maybe you shouldn’t?” right out of the gates set a playful tone and it’s evident that Burr really had no idea Billy Corgan would be there.
Bill Burr, a born-and-raised Red Sox fan, wasted no time ripping on the Smashing Pumpkins singer for being a Chicago Cubs fan which was a well-disguised way of relating to Corgan that he knew more about him than ‘this guy is famous and we might be brothers.’
Burr kept up with the jokes, saying “what was supposed to happen? Are we going to go play catch? We’re both in our 50s.” Howie Mandel finally excused himself from the situation and the two Bills had a great conversation.
Burr asked Corgan “what did he tell you he did for a living?” which as we learned before was ‘traveling musician.’ Burr says in his house “he played piano, saxophone…” and Corgan interjected “no, just guitar” which they had a laugh over because ‘dad’ told Bill Burr he couldn’t play the guitar.
Are the two Bills actually half-brothers?
Well, most of the conversation was light hearted but it did come to the conclusion of Bill Burr conclusively saying “we have the same father, you idiot. Haven’t you been listening?”
At this point, all that is left is for them to get a DNA test.
Side note: today marks 29 years since Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins released ‘1979’ as a single. Enjoy: