Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan hits out at ‘greatest guitar player’ lists for not including or ranking him high enough

nme.com:

The Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan has hit out at various ‘greatest guitar player’ lists for not including him or ranking him at a low spot.The ‘Cherub Rock’ singer opened up about how “most people don’t even recognise my contributions as a guitar player” in a new interview with Guitar World.

The frontman specifically referenced ‘greatest guitar player’ lists and how he is often overlooked during those rankings.“I usually don’t even make those lists,” he told the outlet. “Or they’ll put me behind somebody who I could play circles around.

I don’t mean to denigrate the people in front of me… but come on, you know?”He continued: “I’m writing the song, lyrics, melodies, arrangements and playing most of the complicated guitar.

And I’m capable of doing a solo on top of that. I think that’s hard for people to process… They don’t want to believe one person can do all those things.”Corgan reflected on the past and how when people previously discovered how much he actually played on a Smashing Pumpkins track, he found that they had not reacted well, saying that if he had admitted to playing to the majority of the instrumentals on a song, he’d be viewed as “the evil guy who wasn’t letting my band play on the records”.The musician shared: “I’ve played on stage with George Lynch and Uli Jon Roth, two of the greatest guitar players in history.