Billy Corgan Thinks Bill Burr Might Be His Half-Brother

Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan and comedian Bill Burr are both pale, bald famous guys with the same first name. They both like pro wrestling, and they both seem to have strong opinions about cancel culture. Up until now, I would’ve thought that these were the only things those two men had in common. But Corgan thinks that they might share something else — that they might, in fact, have the same dad.

Today, Corgan appeared on an episode of Howie Mandel’s Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast, and Mandel realized that he’d mistakenly put up an image of Bill Burr behind Corgan. Corgan didn’t mind, and that led to Corgan telling a story about their possible relationship:

I’ve never told it to anyone. In fact, most of my friends don’t even know this story. About 10 years ago, one of my brothers was having a birthday party, and my stepmother was there, who was obviously married to my father. And my stepmother said to me, “Do you know who Bill Burr is?” Now at that point, I had never heard of Bill Burr; I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know he was a comedian or anything. He could have been the guy down the street.

And she said, “Well, he’s this comedian.” And I think I even somehow called up a picture on the phone, and I kind of noticed right away, “Gee, he kind of looks like my father.” Bill Burr looks more like my father than Bill Burr looks like me or I look like Bill Burr. So I said to my mother, “Why are you asking me this?”

I thought the first thing she was going to say was, “Oh, I thought you’d notice the resemblance.” She goes, “I think it might be one of your father’s illegitimate children. Bill Burr might be one of the children that your father sired in his days being a traveling musician.” This is a true story. I’m not making this up; there is no joke in this.

Billy Corgan is 57, one year older than Bill Burr. His father, a guitarist, was a chaotic presence in his life, and he died in 2021. But Burr, at least according to the Wikipedia page I’m staring at right now, grew up with both parents, and his father Robert Burr was a dentist. So… probably not? Burr hasn’t said anything about this yet, but I can already imagine the tone of voice that he’ll use if and when he addresses it.