Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan on why he asks people to call him William
nme.comSmashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has explained why he wants to go by the name “William”, and joked that the decision was partly spurred by Diddy.The singer-songwriter was talking in an interview on The Mistress Carrie Podcast earlier this month when the topic arose, and he explained why he released his 2017 solo record under his given name, William Patrick Corgan.Explaining the choice in wrestling terms — as he is a fan of pro wrestling and the owner of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) — he said: “The way I see it in my brain is…Billy is like my stage name at this point; it’s how everybody knows me.
And for anybody who knows wrestling, we mostly in wrestling call people by their stage names.“Even if I know somebody’s real name, I’ll still call them by their gimmick name.
So, to use the term, ‘Billy’ is my gimmick name, ‘William’ is my real name… I’ve asked people to call me William, ’cause that’s, I guess, what I’m comfortable with at 56.”Corgan joked that the decision to swap names was spurred on by American rapper Diddy, who was formerly known as Puff Daddy.“It’s been kind of a funny journey how we got to William.
I kind of blame Puff Daddy. I thought it was kind of funny how he kept changing his name. So I was, like, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna change my name and see what happens.’“It turned into this weird thing; people wrote articles making fun of me for changing my name from Billy to William, even though William’s my real name,” he continued. “Now I’m William Patrick Corgan, which is my real, real name… But everybody calls me Billy.
Read more on nme.com