Pop Quiz: Billy Corgan

Pop Quiz: Billy Corgan

Aidin Vaziri | Billy Corgan has done lots of cool things since the Smashing Pumpkins broke up: kept an online journal, dumped his girlfriend, started bitter feuds with his former band mates, worked on a solo album, and started and broken up a completely different group, Zwan. But a new book of poetry called "Blinking With Fists" tops them all. How can it not, with pieces like "The Song of the Earth," "Poetry of My Heart" and "Twixt and Twine"?



Billy Corgan
Q: Since you quit the band you've been writing poetry and keeping an online diary. When did you turn into a 14-year-old girl?
A: I don't know. You reach a point in your life where you think you're doing what you want to do and you realize you're really not, you're just serving a master you don't even know. So you just say, f -- it, I'm going to do things my way. You don't always win. But it's a more fulfilling path.
Q: Jewel didn't do so hot as a poet. How do you rate your chances?
A: Well, I was a writer before I was a musician. Put it this way: When haven't the knives been out for me? I've been criticized for every album I released, so why would the criticism be any different with a different body of work? It essentially boils down to the same things: "We don't understand you, we don't know what your motivation is and you don't belong." So it doesn't faze me at all.
Q: Did you have to prepare for this book by taking creative writing classes at community college?
A: No. It was totally intuitive. I have no formal training at all. I graduated high school with honors, and I haven't been back since. This is strictly my own dive in the pool.