Pursuits
Billy Corgan, From Smashing Pumpkins to Smashing Heads
How rocker Billy Corgan became the impresario of Chicago’s small-time indie wrestling circuit
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The IHop in Rosemont, Ill., is a convenient spot for Billy Corgan to meet with Jacques and Gabriel Baron. Corgan, lead singer of the multi-platinum rock band Smashing Pumpkins, comes down from Highland Park. The Baron brothers—Jacques is a used-car salesman, Gabriel a bank teller—come up from Lockport. Corgan arrives in a hunter’s cap with the ear flaps pulled down. He sheds it to reveal his familiar shaved head and plops down an antique turquoise camera. “I’m trying to take more pictures,” he says. “When I don’t do music, I have to do other stuff.”
“You’re always doing something,” says Jacques.