Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has professed his love of Lil Peep, claiming that the late rapper’s appeal is similar to that of early Metallica.
Back in November of 2017, the music world lost a promising young artist by way of Lil Peep. Passing away at the age of just 21, the young artist had managed to gain a strong following thanks to his music which mixed elements of hip-hop, rock, and emo music.
Now, in a new interview with BUILD, Billy Corgan has discussed the feeling of listening to a band such as Metallica while living as a suburban kid in the ’80s. When asked if any artists deliver that same level of nihilism and emotion today, Corgan was quick to name Lil Peep, while lamenting the musician’s untimely death.
“Unfortunately, Lil Peep, probably of all the artists I’ve heard recently tapped into that same angst,” Corgan explained. “And it’s so sad he passed away because he was just getting to the bigger part of his work.”
“Somehow when I heard Lil Peep I said ‘that’s exactly that same vibe’ [as Metallica],” he explained, recalling moments from his childhood and how he felt hearing groundbreaking music for the first time.
Billy Corgan’s comments come just a couple of days after the rocker explained that he’s considering recording a Christmas album with the Smashing Pumpkins.
“I also have an inkling to try and get us to do a Christmas record one day, so I might try to use the Christmas spirit to put the record together in concept, even if we’re not ready to record it.”
“It would be a mixture,” Corgan explained of the prospective album’s contents. “I have released two Christmas songs, and I was thinking it would be nice to re-record those in the context of the record we would make.”
“It would be probably lean more acoustic. I would think it’s a bit weird (to make) wild Christmas records. Although, I also like ‘Jingle Bell Rock,’ which is basically 1950s rockabilly. But I don’t know.”
“When I think Christmas music, I tend to think something you want to put on and sit around the tree with the kids and not rock out to. I don’t see us doing a rocking-out Christmas album.”
Check out Lil Peep’s ‘Awful Things’:
