Just ahead of the Smashing Pumpkins’ co-headlining European tour with Weezer, Billy Corgan has warned fans that they should expect the band to play more than just the hits.
In a recent interview with Kerrang!, Corgan said he doesn’t feel obligated to add songs to their setlist due to popular demand. “I don’t play any songs I don’t want to play,” he plainly stated. “I don’t care if they’re a classic or not. If I don’t want to play it, I just don’t play it. I don’t put that on the audience like, ‘Well, I’ve got to play this one for you.’ I think that’s kind of cheese.”
Corgan continued by saying that while he understands why fans who paid their hard-earned money and arranged for a babysitter want to hear certain songs, he doesn’t think artists should feel like they have to “serve something that they don’t want to serve. Like they’re chained to a past or a legacy.”
He also believes there is a compromise somewhere in between where a fan of the Pumpkins’ older music walks away from a show with a new appreciation of deeper cuts and B-sides: “You put them in the position of feeling like it’s theirs to chase. You’re not preaching down — ‘Here’s our new song, you better like it or you’re not a fan.’ It’s really on the band to just play great. That’s the thing that fixes it all.”
Ultimately, Corgan’s stance comes from avoiding the feeling of doing karaoke. “It’s not a bad thing that they want to hear songs that they love,” he said. “But you can’t live in the past. It’s the death of any artist. And particularly in America, you know, we have a whole cottage industry here of people living in the past.”
One of Corgan’s peers who would disagree is Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, who said last year that “it’s a little c*nty” when bands treat it as “a burden” to play their big songs.
Though fans shouldn’t expect an anniversary tour from the Pumpkins anytime soon, the band doesn’t entirely avoid playing their hits. During their 2023 “World Is a Vampire” tour, their setlist included classics like “Today,” “Tonight, Tonight,” “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” and “1979.”
After wrapping up their European dates (tickets here), Smashing Pumpkins will join Green Day for the North American leg of “The Saviors Tour.” They’ve also booked some headlining shows of their own, taking place this summer and fall. Get tickets for those dates here.