Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan this week revealed a surprising story he's never told publicly about his family and comedian Bill Burr.
In an interview with Howie Mandel on the "Howie Mandel Does Stuff" podcast, Corgan noted that he is often mistaken for Burr. The comment came after Mandel noted he had an image of Burr behind him instead of Corgan during the interview.
“It happens,” Corgan, a Chicago native, said. “There are actually me and Bill Burr memes.”
But could it be more than just a celebrity doppelgänger situation?
Corgan went on to tell a story about Burr he's never told before.
"In fact, most of my friends don't even know this story," he said.
Corgan said it all started at his brother's birthday 10 years ago, when his stepmom asked him if he knew who Burr was.
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"Now at that point, I had never heard of Bill Burr, I didn’t know who he was," Corgan said. "I didn’t know he was a comedian or anything. He could have been the guy down the street.”
Corgan pulled up a photo of Burr and quickly noticed the resemblance, not only to him but to Corgan's father.
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"I kind of noticed right away, 'Gee, he really looks like my father,'" Corgan said.
That's when his stepmom told him she believed Burr could be one of Corgan's several half siblings.
"Bill Burr might be one of the children that your father sired in his days being a traveling musician" Corgan said his stepmother told him, noting that his father had at least 12 "illegitimate children" that she knew of.
Corgan said the theory made him question a particular moment he shared with his late father during his 18th birthday celebration.
"My father did once tell me that I had a half brother named Bill who was basically born around the same time as me. He told me on my 18th birthday," Corgan said. "This is all totally true. I swear to God."
Corgan said he never took the suspicion from his stepmom to Burr himself, however.
“I've never brought it up," Corgan said. "I certainly know people who know Bill and I’ve never gone to them, but the one thing I did do was I went and looked up Bill’s history and saw I think he was raised on the East Coast in Boston or something like that and it said these are his parents and his life looks pretty normal. If I had seen he was adopted, maybe something, so I’ve never bought it up.”
But when Mandel asked if he could call Burr to share the story, Corgan said "I don’t want to be made fun of by Bill Burr.”
“He’s very funny and I really don’t want the psychological darts in my heart," he said, "All respect to Bill Burr. He’s obviously very talented and funny.”
Besides, at the end of the day, Corgan doesn't actually believe Burr is his half sibling.
"It's my belief at this point because I've sat on this story for 10 years that I don't think Bill Burr and I are related… I think it's just one of those things," Corgan said, citing other celebrity lookalikes like Bono and Robin Williams. "There are people in the world who just look alike."
Burr has not addressed the story publicly.
