Billy Corgan says he scuppered a planned reissue of the soundtrack for classic 90s film Singles.
The Smashing Pumpkins mainman says he took his revenge on Epic records after they apparently buried the band’s track Drown on the 1992 release, which also features songs by Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell and Screaming Trees.
Drown was getting airplay and was set to be the Pumpkins’ breakthrough track, before the release of 1993’s Siamese Dream.
When the label approached Corgan about a reissue 20 years after the original soundtrack’s release, he told them to “fuck off,” Alternative Nation reports.
Corgan says: We put the song Drown on there. They were pushing Alice In Chains’ song Would which is a classic, it’s a great song. They were pushing that, but Drown actually started to get traction at radio, it was actually our first song that had momentum at radio, and Epic killed the song, because they didn’t want it to take away from Alice In Chains.
“They killed our single to make sure that it wouldn’t hurt Alice In Chains’ thing. I can’t complain, because I love Alice In Chains, and I’m friends with Jerry Cantrell, and it’s all good. But what I’m saying, that’s the kind of stuff nobody ever hears about. Where actually, in the old record business, and they still do it, you’ll kill something where it makes no sense.
“Why would you kill something that is working, and working with the public? So that song actually didn’t become as big as it would have become because the record company that held the copyright killed it.”
He continues: “My only revenge was when they came back 20 years later and they wanted to do the reissue of it, and they asked for their demo, and I told them to fuck off. Slight revenge, I took money out of my own pocket, but that’s the way it goes.”
Last month, Corgan slammed the current state of the rock scene and said Radiohead were the last band to do anything new in the genre.
Corgan brought back drummer Jimmy Chamberlin for Smashing Pumpkins US tour with Marilyn Manson. The band are currently working on Day For Night, the follow-up to last year’s Monuments To An Elegy.
