William Patrick Corgan Jr. is is the vocalist and lead guitarist for alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, a rock band famous all over the world active since 1988, since nowadays, even if Corgan is the only one original member left.

He was born March 17, 1967 in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, USA.

He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V(a special kind of guitar, with "v"shape) Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used imitation Gibson Les Paul (another special kind of guitar..).

Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, with which they performed in a few back yards, garages, and the high school variety show. He graduated as an honor student, but instead of going to the university, he decided to pursue music full-time and he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked.

One day while working at a record store, Corgan met guitarist James Iha and the two began recording demos, but James soon decided to write one for himself.

He then met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played.

The band would soon recruit drummer Jimmy Chamberlin to secure a show at the Metro, a famous Chigago's concert hall, where they played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.

Their début album was Gish, in 1991 and with the followings (1993's classic Siamese Dream, 1995's double-album Mellon Collie) the Pumpkins grew in popularity, until they were one of rock's top dogs by the mid- to late '90s. They also supplied the musical score for such movies as Stigmata and Ransom, and produced albums for such other artists as Ric Ocasek, Hole, and Catherine.

During a tour, the band was plagued by Chamberlin's heroin addiction. On July 12, 1996, Chamberlin and touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin overdosed in a hotel room. Chamberlin survived, but Melvoin did not. The Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and would continue as a trio. Their next effort, 1998's Adore, was undertaken with drum machines and studio drummers, and consisted of more subdued material than the band's previous efforts.

The Smashing Pumpkins split up later in 2000 and played their last show on December 2 of that year at the Metro.

In 2004, he began a solo music career, but it wasn't successful as the band's career.

In 2006 the group was indeed reuniting. The band performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Reyes (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, Zeitgeist debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts.

In 1993, he married his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend Chris Fabian but they separated sometime in 1995, and divorced in 1997.

In late 1995, he started dating photographer Yelena Yemchuk, until around 2004.

In early 2006, he moved in with Courtney Love and her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. According to Love, he had his own wing in her new Hollywood Hills mansion. He is currently dating reality celebrity Tila Tequila.