You probably would never identify Billy Corgan, the mastermind behind the 90s’ group the Smashing Pumpkins as a Miley Cyrus fan, right? Well, think again. On Friday night at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto, while touring behind his solo record, Ogilala, Corgan played an acoustic version of Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball." The singer-songwriter, who has a share of his own ballads, opened his five-song encore with Cyrus’ hit song. Of course Corgan put his own spin on the tune by altering the song’s tempo and delivering it in a vocally deadpan style.
In 2014, Corgan told a French rock radio station (OUI FM) that he admired Miley Cyrus as a singer-songwriter and would consider collaborating with her. "She's a very good singer," Corgan said at the time. "So at least I can stand back and say qualitatively that she's a better pop star than 99.99% of them, even if I don't like the music." While it’s rare for an artist like Billy Corgan to cover Miley, this isn’t the first time a rock musician has done this. According to our records, forty-four other artists have previously covered “Wrecking Ball” including Dustin Kensrue of Thrice, indie-rock band WATERS, UK act Wild Beasts, and Panic! At The Disco.
As for the rest of the show, The Smashing Pumpkins leader played a sprawling set of thirty-one songs including Ogilala from beginning to end. He went into a career spanning set of some his most well known Smashing Pumpkins songs. He performed “Disarm,” and “Today” from 1993’s Siamese Dream and “1979” and “Thirty-Three” off of 1995’s double-LP, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. He also covered Tim Hardin’s, “If I Were a Carpenter” and Neil Young’s “After The Gold Rush."
Corgan's fall solo tour for Ogilala will wrap on November 11 during a 3-night run in the Masonic Lodge inside Los Angeles' Hollywood Forever Cemetery. In addition, the singer also created and screened his new silent film, Pillbox, in the U.S. and in London.
To see Billy Corgan on tour, visit LiveNation.com.
