Billy Corgan addressed his friendship with the embattled Marilyn Manson during an appearance on the New York Times podcast Popcast.
Corgan and Manson attended each other’s birthday parties the past couple of years, leading Popcast co-host Jon Caramanica to ask Corgan about maintaining a friendship with the shock rocker in the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations against him in recent years.
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The Smashing Pumpkins frontman pointed to both public developments in the legal cases against Manson, as well as his own personal knowledge of the situation.
“I think that ultimately, as a Christian person… you have to stand by your friends,” began Corgan, “but that doesn’t mean you don’t have an opinion, and that doesn’t mean you’re not critical. In his case, and I’m not here to adjudicate it, but the DA looked at the case for five years. In some cases, I knew personal things behind the scenes that are not in the public sphere. I personally didn’t feel that he was guilty of the things he was being charged with, and ultimately, the fact that the DA didn’t pursue it.”
He continued, “So, basically, the person that I knew and the way it all kind of went down, even though it was an elongated process, was commensurate with the person that I knew. You know what I mean? It’s like, it all kind of lined up. But, I wasn’t there. I can’t be there for everything. But I guess it’s one of those things where I don’t want the world to tell me who my friends are and who I should associate with. That’s politically, socially, and in Brian’s case [Manson’s real name is Brian Warner], we have a relationship that goes back close to 30 years.”
Corgan also pointed to the fact that Manson and Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha are brothers-in-law.
“The other thing that people should know, and it may gets lost in the gloss here is Manson’s wife Lindsay is a twin,” explained Corgan. “And her twin is Ashley, and Ashley’s married to James Iha of the Pumpkins. So, Manson’s basically a part of our family — there’s a deeper set of relationships there. Plus, I knew Manson’s parents.”
Corgan concluded, “So, I think anybody in that situation struggles with… the seriousness of the accusations, but again, I also knew the inside baseball of the case. I knew certain people who are involved, and so you make those evaluations. At the end of the day, I feel I made the right determination, but if things had come out… Like, people would ask me privately, ‘Well, what happens if…’ and I’d say, ‘If he’s guilty, or anybody in that situation is guilty, they should go to jail.'”
While Corgan’s friendship with Manson dates back three decades, the two had a falling out for roughly 15 years when Manson got upset about a letter that Corgan wrote him warning of his relationship with actress Rose McGowan. They buried the hatchet in December 2014, when Manson joined the Pumpkins onstage at a concert in London.
The Smashing Pumpkins are in the midst of their “Rats in a Cage” North American fall tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of their seminal album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Pick up tickets here.
Marilyn Manson, meanwhile, is on the road in support of his recent album, One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2, with headlining shows coming up in Austin and Los Angeles, and an appearance at the Sick New World festival in Fort Worth, Texas, this Saturday (tickets available here).
Watch Billy Corgan’s appearance on Popcast below. The conversation about Manson begins at the 53:24 mark.