Hear Billy Corgan’s Raw Cover of Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’

Billy Corgan encored the recent Toronto stop of his Ogilala tour with a brash, acoustic version of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball.” 

The Smashing Pumpkins singer replaced Cyrus’ tearjerking melisma with his clipped, nasal deadpan. The bridge’s lyrics like “I never meant to start a war/ I just wanted you to let me in” felt eerily Pumpkins-esque under Corgan’s voice. With just acoustic guitar, Corgan ticked up the song’s tempo and frequently slipped off-key, giving the song an unvarnished warmth. 

In 2014, Corgan told a French rock radio station (OUI FM) that he admired Miley Cyrus as a singer-songwriter and would consider collaborating with her. “She’s a very good singer,” Corgan said at the time. “So at least I can stand back and say qualitatively that she’s a better pop star than 99.99% of them, even if I don’t like the music.”

Corgan’s brief fall solo tour for Ogilala will wrap in mid-November in the Masonic Lodge inside Los Angeles’ Hollywood Forever Cemetery. In addition, Corgan also created and screened his new silent film, Pillbox, in the U.S. and in London.