Billy Corgan Joins My Chemical Romance For Smashing Pumpkins Classic In Chicago

Before their concert began at Chicago’s Soldier Field on Friday night, My Chemical Romance projected a message to attendees on the large screen flanking the sides of the stage, which read, “Rule 127: Regardless of expressing immense frustration, vermin are to remain caged at all times.”

The thinly veiled allusion to The Smashing Pumpkins song “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” proved to be a premonition as Billy Corgan later joined MCR for a performance of the 1990s alternative rock classic.

Corgan, a Chicago native, was brought out for what became the final song of My Chemical Romance’s concert at Soldier Field. The show began with a track-by-track recreation of MCR’s 2006 album, The Black Parade.

As the concert neared its conclusion, MCR frontman Gerard Way spoke at length from the smaller secondary stage about his appreciation for The Smashing Pumpkins. Way mentioned seeing Corgan and the band in concert with his brother, MCR bassist Mikey Way, stating:

“Mikey and I, especially, have a real history with The Smashing Pumpkins. He bought me a ticket to see the Mellon Collie tour, and we saw that and it was like, ‘We would love to do this, it would be real fucking amazing.’ And funny enough, Ethan Weber, who’s doing our lights right now, was on that one as well – when they had this crazy fucking light tower and it was amazing.

“Anyway, through the course of My Chemical Romance, we’ve gotten to exchange nice words and stuff and it’s been really awesome. We love being supportive of them and they’ve been really supportive of us.

“So let’s fast forward, so now it’s like the pandemic, and I’m super sad guy – it might be before the pandemic – and so I come across this video, it’s late at night, I’ve got this aesthetic, kind of sad alone, on purpose though, nobody put me that way.

“I’m scrolling through Instagram and I see this fucking kid in his room playing along to ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’ and his guitar, it’s not a great mix by far, and he’s somewhere in Europe and the string of videos, it’s not edited well at all, it’s like fucked up – it’s awesome. But I watched this thing, and I felt the light of Christ enter my chest. It was wild. It was golden and it was wild …

This song – it’s the ultimate rock defiance to me. It’s like searing an imprint on the universe in pure fucking defiance. It is the best rock ‘n’ roll song ever fucking made.

“Billy Corgan, you fucking rock god, will come up and do a song with us? This is wild on a thousand fucking levels. Billy, thank you for everything.”

Without saying anything in response to Way’s flattery, Corgan emphatically delivered the cold-open lyrics that kick off “Bullet With Butterfly Wings.” The anthemic song was the lead single off The Smashing Pumpkins’ breakout 1995 album, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness.

“Great fun!” Corgan posted after the sit-in. “And fantastic gig by the boys. Just killed it in front of a massive Chicago crowd.”

Watch footage of Billy Corgan joining My Chemical Romance in Chicago: