Billy Corgan Wants His Pumpkins Back...

It’s June 21, the eve of the release of Billy Corgan’s solo record, TheFutureEmbrace, and the rocker is celebrating with a show at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium. “I’m as pissed off as I was when I was 19,” he says, indicating there’s still fuel left to drive his former vehicle, Smashing Pumpkins, back into existence.

Earlier in the day, Chicagoans awoke to find two full-page Corgan-placed ads in the Tribune and Sun-Times. Both were entitled “A Message To Chicago From Billy Corgan.” In the ads, Corgan revealed, “I found that my heart is in Chicago, and that my heart is in The Smashing Pumpkins.”

At Adler Planetarium, hundreds of fans gain entrance to his record-release show by purchasing the new album. Amid the bevy of fans, who hastily thrust CDs into the rocker’s hands, Corgan juggles autographs while answering Paste’s questions. “I’ve known it for a year,” Corgan says of his desire to return to his Pumpkins roots. “The idea has gotten stronger, not weaker. It has nothing to do with reunion culture … I can still rock. I’m picking up where I left off.”

He says there are still plenty of things he’d like to accomplish with the Pumpkins. As to whether this “reunion” will include the band’s original members, it’s something he prefers not to address. “To me, the important thing is I made up my mind to do this … it’s tilling the soil that makes me tick … I need to go back to grow and to plant new stuff.” When, who and how soon we’ll see Smashing Pumpkins is yet to be revealed. For now, fans will have to get their Corgan fill solo-style as he embarks on his North American tour.