Originally published at: Listen to Billy Corgan recount his father's negative reaction to his success | Boing Boing
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Not to diminish the sorts of things he’s experienced with his father but Corgan himself has a history of toxic behavior
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Not an excuse but he had a pretty fucked up childhood
Corgan was a lonely, traumatized kid, born into a world of dysfunction and addiction. His father, William Corgan, was a heroin-addicted blues and R&B guitarist; his mother had a breakdown and abandoned him before he was five years old. Later, while his father was on the road, Corgan says, he endured physical abuse from a stepmother.
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Children of narcissists are broken in many ways. Doesn’t excuse it, but it does explain it. All you can do is do your level best to try to break the chain.
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Troubling article but I must admit that I laughed out loud at this part:
“Corgan put down his electric guitar in favor of a ukulele for a solo acoustic set. As Corgan tried to play a song called “Love is the Sweetest Thing,” a heckler shouted out for him to play “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” and another requested the theme song from Welcome Back, Kotter. Corgan stopped playing, said “I’m too old for this sh*t,” and left the stage.”
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Toxic narcissist parents like Corgan’s father enjoy thinking they’re exciting and edgy, but really they’re always so boringly predictable in their reactions.
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In 2016, Corgan was a guest on The Alex Jones Show, a syndicated radio program hosted by lunatic pundit Alex Jones.
That wasn’t his only appearance.
When Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan is in Austin, Texas, he drops by the studios of America’s favorite conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones. Corgan, who says he first encountered Jones’ work six or seven years ago, has done at least three lengthy interviews with the radio host in the past 12 months alone, including an hour-long sit-down on Friday.
So that’s at least two appearances after the Sandy Hook mass shooting. I’ve previously complained about Corgan holding a benefit stream from his Highland Park business, Madame ZuZu’s Teahouse, but he’s now going to have a book signing and matches for members of the wrestling league he’s involved with.
…all with select proceeds benefiting the Highland Park Community Foundation’s July 4th Recovery Fund.
I still haven’t heard of him recanting any of that support for Jones.
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Meanwhile, Corgan appears to have done fuckall in that category of effort.
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But it’s not his FAULT he’s a dick! /s
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In fairness to his dad, pop stardom is heavily dependent on luck and if you hit it big suddenly, you should be saving your money, because it’s rare that it lasts. Tons of musicians who hit it big regretted not being better about saving their money. I’m guessing his dad conveyed the advice in a more toxic way than he’s describing, though…
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Sometimes I remember that he had this weird tea shop in the North Shore.
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And their failures. Which they’re painfully aware of, yet can’t seem to grow past.
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My wife drew a short straw and got a narcissist father. She’s lovely. She worked damn hard not to be a mess.
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My wife’s mother was (is) one. The damage is real but, like yours, she’s done a fine job of consciously working against the tide.
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Does your wife have siblings? How are they responding to the ‘against the tide’ bit?
I presume part of this work involves drawing up boundaries between her and the narc parent, but of course there’s no guarantee your sibling(s) will end up on your side of that divide. Happy to hear that she has found a supportive partner though 
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Thanks. The other sibling is just the classic Golden Child. There’s the old Tolstoy chestnut that “All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” but the commonalities among narcissists and children-of-narcissists gives lie to that.
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That’s a familiar story.
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