Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan once had the guts to tell Pantera to "shut the fuck up" to their faces.
During a recent interview on SiriusXM personality Jose Mangin's Metal Ambassador podcast, the alt-rock icon recalled a story from the late Nineties when he was hanging with Pantera backstage, and the Cowboys From Hell were getting all worked up about how Metallica's look and music were changing during their Load and Reload era.
As Corgan tells it, he had heard enough about Metallica from the Pantera boys, and he decided to cut them off in the middle of their conversation — but in a way that was weirdly complimentary, because Corgan was and still is a massive Pantera fan.
"Let me tell you a story since we're talking Pantera," Corgan told Mangin. "So, they were having a big moment obviously during [the Nineties] and I was backstage with them one day and one of those mid-Nineties — might have been Reload or something — Metallica [albums] had come out, and there was a lot of controversy about where Metallica was trying to go and what happened to Metallica and are they still metal and they're wearing makeup now or whatever.
"And [Pantera] were just going on and on about Metallica. Not in a negative way, more like a confused, like, 'I love Metallica, but I don't get it and they're not metal and what's going on?' And I literally said, and this is a true story, I don't think I've ever told this story in public. I raised my hands, and I knew them well enough that they would sort of listen to me. I mean, that's saying something.
"And I said, 'You know what? Shut the fuck up.' And they looked at me like, like, 'Did you just tell us to shut the fuck up?' I said, 'Shut the fuck up.' Okay, so the room goes silent, and I go, 'Listen, set aside Metallica for a second. Okay? You guys right now are the best metal band on the fucking planet, okay? Shut the fuck up. Worry about Pantera. Just worry about Pantera. Metallica will work it out.'
"And they did, right? And I said, 'You just focus on Pantera. You just focus on being the greatest metal band on the fucking planet.' And they all kind of looked at each other and they were like, 'Okay, he's complimenting us.' And then it was like, 'Okay, drink this horrible poison you fucking alternative weirdo.'"
Watch Corgan tell the story below
Then, watch Corgan hail Pantera, Slayer, Mercyful Fate and more as he picks the 11 greatest metal bands of all time.
