Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox has used a show in North Carolina to tell the amazing story of then time when Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and his crew allegedly had some nasty words to say after Cox tried to take one of Corgan’s water bottles. It sounds ridiculous, but also somehow not-all-that-surprising.
As Consequence Of Sound reports, footage has emerged (below) of Cox setting down his guitar during Deerhunter’s Friday night show at the Orange Peel in Asheville, North Carolina, and recounting a story about the time the band opened for Smashing Pumpkins at the same venue in 2007.
Cox says that after Deerhunter’s set, he grabbed a bottle of water from “this big pyramid of Voss Water” backstage, before a security guard asked him, “What the fuck are you’re doing? That’s Mr. Corgan’s water.”
The security guard then allegedly shoved Cox against a wall before Deerhunter’s then-bassist Josh Fauver managed to separate them, and the band members retreated to “the broom closet down in the basement where they had given us a backstage”.
Cox says he was confronted by a woman the following night, who told him, “Mr. Corgan needs to see you.” Cox then supposedly found Corgan sitting on the stage, surrounded by cameras and crew members.
“They’re videotaping me the whole time, which I found bizarre,” Cox says. “[And] they bring me up to this stage, and he says to me, ‘I hear you’ve been causing a lot of trouble. Do you know who you are? You’re shit. You’re a shitty little insignificant fucking indie rock band, and you were invited, not by me — who knows what fucking idiot in my management did this — but you were invited to open for the Smashing Pumpkins.’”
Cox says he reacted by telling Corgan to “fuck off” before peeling off his backstage pass and slapping it onto Corgan’s leg. Corgan then reportedly claimed “assault” and his crew threatened to “sue the fucking shit” out of Cox before they suposedly broke drummer Moses Archuleta’s kit by throwing it off stage.
“[Corgan] has a weird fucking voice, it’s kind of deep,” Cox says. “He just seizes in, he looks at me and he just projects every little bit of shit in his bowels right out of his fucking anal mouth, right onto my fucking young soft face, and it was fucked up.”
Deerhunter’s run of shows with the Smashing Pumpkins, according to Cox, was a “week-long torture camp”, but Corgan’s manager has issued a pretty harsh statement saying, “Several eyewitnesses can attest that Cox’s account is a complete fabrication, probably to get some much needed attention.
“He is correct about one thing, that the whole thing is on tape, and that we have a video of the encounter. Since this is intentionally slanderous, I will likely suggest we pursue charges unless a retraction is forthcoming.”
Corgan has a history of not getting along so well with other musicians, and has previously called Pearl Jam “derivative” and said Foo Fighters “haven’t evolved”.
Watch Cox’s brilliant recount of his Billy Corgan water bottle story in full, below.
UPDATE 07/12/15 2.44pm: Bradford Cox has now issued a statement retracting his comments and apologising to Corgan for recounting the story so shortly after the death of his friend, Scott Weiland.
Watch: Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox Recounts Alleged 2007 Confrontation With Billy Corgan
