(Credits: Sven Mandel / Moni Haworth)
Thu 2 April 2026 12:18, UK
Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan has opened up about his sour relationship with Kim Gordon, revealing that the pair got off on the wrong foot at a festival in Holland.
Chatting with his friend and Hole vocalist, Courtney Love, on his podcast The Magnificent Others, the Corgan broached the topic of the former Sonic Youth member, who, famously, does not get along with Love.
“She was really horrible in the 1990s. I remember in Holland, I was hanging out with you,” Love began, referring to Corgan, “and [Sonic Youth] were so mean.”
Corgan then reminisced, “I came into their dressing room because we were all playing this festival. Kurt [Cobain] was playing too. Nine Inch Nails was playing, Charles from Black Francis was playing…”
Corgan continued, “I came in, I was a fan, and I came in to pay my respects, and I was treated so rudely by her; that was the beginning of a horrible relationship.” Love agreed that in that instance, she was also treated badly by the band.
Later, Corgan did heap praise onto Sonic Youth, adding, “I loved what they were doing with the guitars. I loved the graphics. And the drummer and Thurston [Moore, Gordon’s ex-husband] were always super nice, and very friendly.”
However, the pair decided to leave the conversation behind, “These people are dicks, they were dicks… I mean, one was a dick.” Love laughed.
In Gordon’s memoir, Girl in a Band, published in 2015, both Corgan and Love found themselves directly in the firing line.
Of Corgan, Gordon wrote, “I thought, ewwww, at even the mention of Billy Corgan, whom nobody liked because he was such a crybaby, and Smashing Pumpkins took themselves way too seriously and were in no way punk rock.”
Gordon, who recently released her solo album Play Me, wrote of Love, “I have a low tolerance for manipulative, egomaniacal behavior, and usually have to remind myself that the person might be mentally ill.”
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