William Patrick Corgan, Jr. was born in March 1967 in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, and is the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. His parents divorced in 1970, but his father soon remarried, and Billy and his younger brother, Ricky, went to live with their father and stepmother in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan’s half-brother, Jesse, was born in 1976 - Jesse was afflicted with mild cerebral palsy, Tourette's syndrome, and other disabilities, and Corgan spent a good deal of his youth taking care of and defending him. The two remain close - Jesse joined The Smashing Pumpkins on stage in Chicago in December 2008. When Corgan’s father and stepmother separated, all 3 children continued to live with the stepmother, with both of Corgan’s birth parents living separately within an hour's drive. Corgan was a strong athlete in elementary school – in addition to being a member of his Marquardt Middle School baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. His interest in playing guitar began when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V, causing Corgan to give his savings to his father, who bought him a used imitation Gibson Les Paul, and encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix (but refused to give lessons as he was skeptical of his son's dedication). In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure, and performed in a string of bands, one of which was called Lex, with guitarist Mike Subrt, bassist Dan Shaw, and drummer Pete Sallis. They performed in back yards, garages, and at the high school variety show. Corgan graduated as an honor student, but despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, including the University of Michigan, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named due to the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing), but after finding success hard to come by, the band dissolved, and Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father.

Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the pair began recording demos (which Corgan has described as ‘doomy little goth-pop records’). After recording their first 2 demos, both written by Corgan, Iha decided to write one for himself. After looking over it, Corgan criticized it. Iha took the criticism very seriously and didn’t talk to Corgan for another 2 months, before the ice between them thawed and they decided to make some more demos. Corgan then met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed, with Corgan as vocalist and lead guitarist. The trio began to play together at local clubs with only a drum machine for percussion, but soon recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin to secure a show at the Metro, in Chicago, where they played for the first time as a quartet in October 1988. Their debut album, “Gish” (1991) fared better than expected, and follow-up, “Siamese Dream”, became a huge hit (containing the songs "Today" and "Disarm"). Third album, 1995’s “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” (a double album) produced a string of hit singles (such as “1979”, which topped both the Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts), was nominated for 7 Grammy awards that year, and was eventually certified 9 times platinum in the US. 1998’s “Adore” did not reach the same heights, but still sold 1.3 million copies in the US, but the concept album “Machina/The Machines of God”, released in 2000, did not sell well at all. Wretzky quit the band, and was replaced by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. Later in that year the band released “Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music” for free over the internet, but split soon after, playing their last show in December 2000 at the Metro.

Corgan went on to form Zwan with former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, releasing the album “Mary Star of the Sea”, but the band was short lived. In late 2004, Corgan published “Blinking with Fists”, a book of poetry, which debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list (one of the first books ever written by a rock-star artist to make the list). 2004 also saw the beginning of Corgan’s solo music career, initially performing acoustic folk songs related to Chicago history, but abandoned this style for his first solo album, ”TheFutureEmbrace”, released in June 2005 through Reprise Records. It make number 31 in the US Billboard chart, and number 67 in Germany, with the only single from the album, “Walking Shade”, peaking at number 74 in the UK (Jimmy Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA", also on ”TheFutureEmbrace”).

In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's 2 major newspapers (The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to reform the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan’s offer for a reunion, and the band spent much of 2006 and early 2007 in the studio, with new members Ginger Reyes (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. Their new album, “Zeitgeist”, produced by Terry Date (Pantera) and released in July 2007, debuted at number 2 on the Billboard charts. The EP, “American Gothic” and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist" were released during 2007 and 2008, but Chamberlin left the band in March 2009.

Although Corgan is not widely recognized for his guitar playing, he wrote 6 articles for “Guitar World” in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek USA" were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. His solo for "Soma" was number 24 on Rolling Stone's list of the top guitar solos. In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine, and shared songwriting credits on several songs on Hole's 1998 album “Celebrity Skin” (the title track became Corgan’s second number 1 on the Modern Rock chart). He acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the album “Mechanical Animals”, and has produced 3 soundtracks for the movies “Ransom” (1996), “Stigmata” (1999) and 2002’s “Spun” (in which he appeared as a doctor). Corgan has performed vocals and guitar for Tony Iommi, Blindside, New Order and Marianne Faithfull, and appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album “Life Begins Again”. Corgan has also guided and collaborated with 3 bands in the 2000s — Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's “We Are Not Alone”), Taproot (for “Blue-Sky Research” in 2005), and Sky Saxon, and has worked on several collaborations — Courtney Love's “Nobodies Daughter”, Garbage vocalist Shirley Manson's debut solo album, and Scorpions' “Humanity - Hour 1”.