Call him arrogant, obstinate and bald, but don't dare accuse Billy Corgan of lacking civic pride. Late last year, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman affirmed his love for Chicago by teaming up with native sons Enuff Z'Nuff for a night of gratifying guitar rock. Following the group's Adore tour (hey, that rhymes), Corgan accepted an invitation to collaborate on new material for the spandexed metal group's new album. |

Late last year, Corgan entered a Chicago studio to contribute guitar to two tracks, however only the song "Everything Works If You Let It" will appear on Enuff Z'Nuff's forthcoming U.S. release, Paraphernalia, due out April 20 on Spitfire Records. The second song will most likely turn up on the next Enuff Z'Nuff album, which is already underway.

Other album tracks will include "All Alone," "Unemotional" and the album's first single, "Freak," all of which feature another notorious Illinois guitarist -- Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. Nielsen shared his studio time with James Young of Styx, who played on the tracks "Invisible" and "Save Me."

"We were blessed to have the biggest guns in Chicago on this album," says band leader Chip Z'Nuff. "We have been huge Cheap Trick fans for years; they are one of our favorite bands after the obvious -- Queen and the Beatles."

Those three influences poke their heads through the Enuff Z'Nuff aesthetic, which most often falls into the same glam-metal category as Def Leppard and Poison. Since forming fifteen years ago, Enuff Z'Nuff tasted fame only once in 1989 with the single "Fly High Michelle" from their self-titled debut. Shortly after, they fell off the rock & roll radar in America.

"We needed [Corgan, Nielsen and Young] to show that, despite any stigmas with the Enuff Z'Nuff name, we are the real McCoy," says Z'Nuff. "This is our chance to turn what was perceived as a negative into a positive."

ANNI LAYNE(February 11, 1999)