Billy Corgan believes Bill Burr could be his half brother

Posted On November 27, 2024November 27, 2024

Billy Corgan, the lead singer and guitarist of Smashing Pumpkins, has claimed he could be half brothers with comedian Bill Burr.

Corgan explained that although he’s never met Burr, he thinks they may have a lot more in common than just their similar appearance, as he stated on Howie Mandel’s podcast, Howie Mandel Does Stuff.

The conversation began when Corgan started speaking about the swathe of lookalike competitions that have been taking place. Mandel’s team then subsequently put up a photo of Burr, which prompted Corgan to tell the story of how he and the comic could be related. 

“Most of my friends don’t even know this story,” the Smashing Pumpkins singer said, “About ten years ago, one of my brothers was having a birthday party, and my stepmother was there, who was obviously married to my father. And my stepmother said to me, ‘Do you know who Bill Burr is?’” 

Corgan continued, “Now at that point, I had never heard of Bill Burr, I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know he was a comedian or anything. He could have been the guy down the street.”

The singer went on to detail the awkward conversation Corgan had with his mother as she discussed his father’s infidelities when he was a travelling musician. “I thought the first thing she was going to say was, ‘Oh, I thought you’d notice the resemblance’,” he said. “She goes, ‘I think it might be one of your father’s illegitimate children. Bill Burr might be one of the children that your father sired in his days being a travelling musician’. This is a true story. I’m not making this up; there is no joke in this.” 

While Corgan didn’t pay much attention to his mother’s comments at the time, he then recalled his father telling him a similar story. “[He] did once tell me that I had a half-brother named Bill,” he said, “Who was basically born around the same time as me.”

Corgan shed more light on his father’s happenings, saying that he had been told he had 12 children outside of wedlock. the singer also admitted that he looked into the possibility of the story for some time, but he’s not sure all of the pieces fit together. To conclude, he said that he doesn’t actually think they’re related, but it’s “just one of those things.” 

Burr is yet to respond to Corgan’s comments.

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