Is Billy Corgan Right About Aging Rock Stars?

Billy Corgan shares his thoughts on the gravity of music and the reality of some aging rock stars. But that's not they way he wants to go out.

This is an excerpt from our full interview with him which you can find here:

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[cozyslor]

"You can't sing the Blues from the back of a limousine."-BB King

[atomica]

🎵Despite all my rage, I am still...ahhh....living comfortably and actually pretty happy now 🎵

[souperstar]

"You can't be 24 again. You can't be that hungry twice." John Lennon

[DrumdumsOfficial]

Paul Stanley: "What are we going to sing about? Our limousine didn't show up on time?"

[sloaiza]

"Its hard to get up at 4am to run when your sleeping in silk sheets." Marvin Hagler

[UserUser-zcfx]

He's right because it's happened to him, even though he might not realize it.

He's still very talented and makes good music. But it's different. He's old, comfortable and wealthy now. His contemporary music lacks the hunger and rawness of his youth. Most of the greatest art, especially rock music is driven by desperation and a deep hunger of some sort, which he no longer feels due to success. Slash of GnR said this was one of the most difficult things to come to terms with as a successful musician. He said he still can't help but chase the sounds of his youth.

[jasonhaza]

Talent doesn't evaporate but desire to achieve does. There are exceptions - but ambition is a young persons sport.

[zackattack]

Billy doesn't realize he is the rockstar he's talking about.

[keithbertschin]

But what he’s saying absolutely applies to the Pumpkins. Siamese Dream & Mellon Collie were beautiful. Not even come close since. It doesn’t matter though, we have those.

Most bands have their sweet spot 2/3 albums and then that’s it.

[Kevin-mxvi]

Some years ago a successful singer/songwriter told me that his first album was made of all the best songs he'd written up to that point - his early 20's.
The album was a hit, his record company wanted another one, and he found himself with only 6 months to write an album's worth of equal or better songs, and do it while constantly in demand for gigs, interviews, etc.
He did it, but was exhausted and almost quit.

[AnalogKid]

His earlier work was so good he set the bar really high. He doesn’t want to repeat himself, which I totally respect, but all his music will be compared to his albums from the 90’s.

[mrfarenheit]

There’s Another factor that is not being talked about, you typically blow through your best musical ideas early on, and the stuff you do later on can sometimes sound derivative of the stuff you did earlier on, and then leads to a lot of scrapped, abandoned, and aborted projects. We simply become close minded by virtue of wanting to create something unique

[kryptonian]

People get older and comfortable. They feel like they paid their dues and a lot of them have. They are just living life.

[jmoasksthequestions]

Truly great rock music needs an energy, a vitality, and a certain amount of naiveté that very few people over 30 can pull off. I can think of very few rock musicians who peaked after 30.

[Tim-yq]

I don't think it's always that the music gets worse per se, it's just that people can never hear your music for the first time again.

[danielevans]

Because great art often comes from an artist that is not satisfied. It comes from a place of struggle. You can lose creative juices when you’re laying by your swimming pool at your mansion.

[scottwebster]

In the 1996 film Trainspotting "Sick Boy" has a philosophy that covers this very topic.
"At one point you've got it, and then you lose it and it's gone forever."
"But what about Sean Connery winning the Academy award for The Untouchables ?"
"It was sympathy vote."

[paddyoak]

Talent doesn’t evaporate, but youth does. And the young musicians are hungry!

[MmeDesgranges]

Rock stars hit us with that insightful life experience. When that experience is all about YEAH!!!! and your twenties it sells big. When that life experience is about more mellow, more complex things from later years it doesn't sell big. The talent is still the same. Maybe the fire is less but that's part of it too. It's still art, just not popular.

[pete]

Talent does not diminish, but i think there is a limit to how many ideas one can have over a lifetime. The fact that the phenomenon of artists' creativity seems to diminish over time is universal seems like proof. It's just simple entropy