Billy Corgan: ‘Eddie Vedder Couldn’t Be Controlled’

During a recent interview with Allison Hagendorf, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan revealed that there is a lot of “resentment” towards ‘90s alt-rock icons like himself and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder because they were “uncontrollable.”

Discussing the early days of the alt-rock and grunge movements, Corgan said: “It really was a watershed moment where [you had] bands like The Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, [Red Hot Chili] Peppers – and everybody was getting on the radio, /and/ we were in the top 40. I mean, imagine alternative music in the top 40. Now, it’s almost unthinkable. Well, it was just as unthinkable then, in 1989 or whatever.”

Corgan continued, explaining that because all of these bands went against the norm at the time, music industry executives were frustrated by their inability to “control” them.

“When you present an outlying system to a business that is all wrapped up, they’ll make the money off of you. But deep down, they’re resentful, because they can’t control you, right? They couldn’t control Kurt [Cobain], they couldn’t control Eddie [Vedder], they couldn’t control Layne [Staley] and Jerry [Cantrell]; they just couldn’t control us. And, deep down, they kind of hated that. So, you don’t realize that at the time, [but] there’s a ticking clock for them, looking to replace you.”

“If you look at the artists that we’re talking about… Billie Joe [Armstrong], Kurt, Trent [Reznor], Courtney [Love], everybody is totally different, and we all represented something of the music business that, deep down, they didn’t really want. Look at the entire history of rock and roll in the music business. They really don’t want outlying personalities,” Corgan added.