Bill Burr And Billy Corgan Had A Painfully Awkward Encounter On Howie Mandel's Podcast After It Was Revealed That They Might Be Half-Brothers

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27-01-2025

This is popular comedian Bill Burr.
And this is Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan.
On the surface, you can see that they are two famous bald guys who kind of look alike — and, as it turns out, there may be a very good reason for that.
So, back in November of last year, Billy Corgan appeared on fellow bald celebrity Howie Mandel's Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast — and during the interview, he dropped a massive bomb of information about his alleged familial lineage.
"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," Billy Corgan recalled. "And my stepmother said to me, 'Do you know who Bill Burr is?'"
"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.'"
Obviously, that is an insane revelation to drop on a podcast — and the situation was further escalated when Bill Burr was interviewed on a recent episode of Howie's show and was greeted by a surprise appearance from none other than Billy Corgan.
Bill Burr was (somewhat understandably) not pleased. "You're an asshole," he said to Howie when Billy Corgan walked on set. "I thought it would be a good surprise," Howie replied, and after some hesitation Bill Burr consented to stick around for the chat with Billy Corgan.
But that doesn't mean Bill Burr was happy to be there. "Did you ever think the fact that I never told that story... that maybe you shouldn't?" he said to Billy Corgan. "You know how many emails and crap I got?"
"Listen, you've done well for yourself, I'm happy for you, but I just would prefer if you just kinda didn't go around telling these fucking stories. Like, why did you feel the need to do that?"
Billy Corgan then revealed that it was actually Howie who encouraged him to tell the story on his podcast after the two ran into each other and the latter joked, "Here comes Bill Burr."
"I go, 'Do you know that story somehow?'" Billy Corgan explained. "And [Howie] said, 'What story?' And so I told him privately that story and he said, 'Oh, you've got to say this on the air.'"
Bill Burr then accused Howie of bringing Billy Corgan onto the show "for the fucking ratings." "He's bringing you in here, not because he's trying to heal the bullshit that we went through growing up," Burr said. "What was supposed to happen? Are we going to go play catch? We're both in our 50s."
Bill Burr went on to refer to his father as "a piece of shit," which might explain his strong reaction to the whole ordeal. "He had two kids this close together, and he gave them the same fucking name? He thinks it's different because he's Billy and I'm Bill. That's how he told the difference."
Michael S. Schwartz / Getty Images
Bill Burr also (kind of) let Billy Corgan off the hook for telling the story to begin with — and he offered a reason why the whole ordeal displeased him in general.
Pedro Gomes / Redferns
"It's not that I don't like him, it reminds me of all of that shit," he said about Billy Corgan.