Corgan's debut looks to 'Future'

NEW YORK — All things being perfect, Billy Corgan would never have released a solo album.

All things being perfect, Billy Corgan still would have been churning out hits as part of the seminal '90s angst-rock band he founded, the Smashing Pumpkins — or at the very least, would have been readying a follow-up album with the band that followed it, Zwan.

But things have never been perfect for Corgan, the brainchild behind both groups and one of the more mercurial figures in the rock world. He famously smashed the Pumpkins into pieces in 2000 after the band had sold more than 20 million records worldwide with their pathos-laden songs; the relationship between the foursome had disintegrated and Corgan's artistic path for the band was not replicating past pop success. In 2003, he formed Zwan, but that band lasted only a year.

Corgan has decided to step away from the band format with his solo debut, "TheFuture—Embrace." But it's not his only individual project. Besides a book of poetry that he released last year, "Blinking With Fists," Corgan has been writing about his life on his Web site — detailing everything from the childhood abuse he says he suffered at the hands of his father and stepmother to his very adult battles with depression and other demons.

Corgan — a tall and striking figure with his shaved head, pale skin and piercing blue eyes — spoke about putting his life story on the Web, his new album and why a Smashing Pumpkins reunion wouldn't be what you'd expect in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Associated Press: When did you decide to start writing your autobiography and put it on the Internet?

Corgan: It's something I thought about for two years as far as writing my life story. I went through various scenarios — should I put out a book? Your first thought is conventional thought ... like, this is how it's done, and how much, and what's it for, and what can I say, what can't I say and all that. So after thinking about it like that, every time, I would come up to what can I say, what can't I say, I would get bummed out.

Associated Press: Why?