Chicago

‘Were You On Drugs?': Billy Corgan Spins Bizarre Yarn on ‘Howard Stern Show'

Perhaps he’s hoping this bizarre story will transform into record sales.

Smashing Pumpkins frontman, Highland Park resident and tea shop owner Billy Corgan told a strange story Monday on "The Howard Stern Show" in which he claimed to have seen someone transform into something else.

What was that something, you ask? Only he knows.

“I’m turning red, I’m so embarrassed,” Corgan said. “Let’s just say I was with somebody once and I saw, I saw a transformation that I can’t explain.”

Howard and company were vexed.

“The person transformed into something other than human,” Stern inquired.

Corgan responded in the affirmative.

“Were you on drugs?” co-host Robin Quivers asked.

Corgan was “totally sober,” he said.

“Imagine you’re doing something and suddenly you turn around and there’s somebody else standing there,” he struggled to explain.

Stern asked if the person turned into another person.

“Sorta—it’s hard to explain without going into detail, I’d rather not go into details,” Corgan dodged.

Corgan said the person who transmogrified in some way acknowledged what they’d done but would not explain it.

“It’s a really messed up story. I’m being vague on purpose,” he said. “It’s up there with one of the most intense things I’ve ever been through.”

So, anyway, Corgan, who now goes by William Patrick Corgan, will release his new album “Ogilala” Friday.

He will play Chicago shows at the Athenaeum Theatre on Oct. 24 and 25.

But of course that’s subject to change.

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