“I’m not really a pop music fan,” admits Billy Corgan, but the Smashing Pumpkins founder says that he has a lot of respect for the artistry and talent of 2024’s breakout star, Chappell Roan.
Speaking to Blunt magazine, Corgan - who, it turns out, may or may not be comedian Bill Burr’s half brother - acknowledged how difficult it is for a young artist to carve out a career these days, before singling out Roan - AKA Kayleigh Rose Amstutz - for particular praise.
“I saw an interview recently with Chappell Roan where she was talking about how she got signed when she was a teenager and they wanted her to be someone else,” said Corgan. “But she’s had this incredible kind of renaissance, and people are treating her like this overnight sensation. Which, to the average public, she is. But she had to figure all that out, and in many ways, herself.”
Roan’s struggle to break through has been well documented. She was signed to Atlantic Records in 2017, but dropped in 2020. However, she continued to work with producer Dan Nigro, eventually releasing her critically-acclaimed debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, in 2023. It wasn’t until she scored a hit with non-album 2024 track Good Luck, Babe!, though, that the wider world started to take notice and her career went stratospheric.
Praising Roan’s perseverance, Corgan says: “You can point to that and say there is a model there for someone who figured out the right music, the right personality, and the right organic way to reach an audience,” adding that “the people who really figure out how to go over the mountain figure out the back way and figure out some path that’s only their own.”
Would Corgan go as far as to say that he considers himself a fan, though? “Chappell Roan isn’t trying to sing for a 57-year-old guy with little kids,” he says. “I tend to look at the talent and the brilliance of what the artist is trying to put together. I can respect that. But I’m not going to sit here and pretend I listen to pop music because it’s not for me.”
Maybe a duet isn’t on the cards, then, but that doesn’t mean that Corgan can’t admire Roan from afar. “She’s brilliant at what she does. She’s a true artist,” he says.
Corgan’s view of Roan is not dissimilar to Pete Townshend’s take on pop superstar Taylor Swift. “Not that she's necessarily absolutely always to my taste, but I just love the fact that she seems to love it, that she seems to be having so much fun,” he said earlier this year. “That's what I identify with.”
