Smashing Pumpkins respond to My Chemical Romance cover with Billy Corgan and Gerard Way lookalike memes

21 July, 2025

The Smashing Pumpkins have responded to My Chemical Romance covering their track ‘Bullet with Butterfly Wings’.

The emo giants are currently on their ‘Long Live The Black Parade’ tour, celebrating the 20th anniversary of their seminal 2006 album. During Saturday’s (July 19) stop at San Francisco’s Oracle Park, the band performed a surprise cover of the Pumpkins’ 1995 hit.

Now, Billy Corgan and co have responded by sharing a series of TikTok memes about the band on their Instagram, specifically about the likeness between Corgan and Gerard Way – who fans frequently joke is his son.

Alongside the post, the band have included the caption: “For any MCR fans who may have come here from the cover of “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”. Yes Billy is equally proud of his sons :)”

The relationship between the two bands goes back years, prior to My Chemical Romance forming. In a previous interview with Rock Sound, MCR bassist Mikey Way recalled seeing the Pumpkins on their 1996 ‘Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’ tour, which he credited with inspiring him to form a band.

“I started to think about almost everything a little differently after that night. I was like, ‘Man, I don’t think there’s maybe anything else I’d rather do in life than maybe do what they’re doing,'” he said.

“I remember that and the energy in the room. I was so awestruck, that they were playing Madison Square Garden a day after or two days after, and I was like, ‘I gotta go again,'” he continued, adding that he wanted to bring his brother Gerard to the second show.

“I think my brother had that same kind of revelation I did that night when we saw the Madison Square Garden show,” he continued. “I remember nudging him and being like, ‘This is what I want to do. This is what we’re gonna do — and we’re gonna play in this room.’ And I remember him completely agreeing with me at the moment and being like, ‘You’re absolutely right.'”

Gerard has also publicly spoken about the advice and help Corgan has offered him, telling My Turning Point podcast host Steve Baltin: “He’s so smart, and he’s said so much to me over the years in the times that I’ve hung out with him.”

“He’s just been really good to me,” he continued. “And when I moved to LA, he would go to vintage rooms with me to try out amps, [because] I was looking for a heavier sound. He would go and try the stuff out with me. But he’s given me advice over the years. Some of it I wasn’t ready to hear, some of it I had to find out for myself.”

Gerard also reflected on the experience when he interviewed Corgan in 2020 for Alternative Press, telling him: “Other times, you’ve given me advice, which I didn’t always understand at the time. It would later make sense as I tried to slip further out of the machine that I felt trapped in.

“One time we spoke about the machine of being in a big band,” he continued. “You referred to it as a train, from what I remember. The train is going, but it’s rusting, and it’s getting rustier as you continue on that train. But no matter what, that train won’t stop.”

@thesmashingpumpkins

proud of my boy!

♬ Dear Theodosia – Leslie Odom Jr. & Lin-Manuel Miranda

Corgan then responded: “I do. It took me a long time of accepting things and, at the same time, making peace with my own ambition. I was so ambitious when I was young. […] What I’m really hopeful [about] is that we’re probably the last generations that are going to have to do whatever that was,” Corgan added. “And that the next generation coming will have a different opportunity. Now they may choose to want to be in the machine because it’s a lazier option.

“We weren’t given the option of ‘not the machine’. The point is: The younger generations coming will be given the option of the machine or not. I would love to see the power of the next genius that comes down the line. A 20-year-old, just beginning, has all the brilliance that you need.”

In other My Chemical Romance news, the band made headlines when tickets to the tour completely sold out within hours of going on sale, as fans became convinced the emo legends – who recently announced a slew of 2026 dates in Asia and a massive concert in Mexico that same year – were teasing new music.

Their ongoing tour also features diverse array of support acts, which sparked polarising reactions online. Each show features a different hand-selected artist as opening support, including Violent Femmes, 100 Gecs, Wallows, Garbage, Death Cab for Cutie and Thursday, Alice Cooper, Pixies, Devo, IDLES and Evanescence.

Elsewhere, MCR have announced the deluxe 21st anniversary reissue of their classic second album, 2004’s ‘Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge’.

As for The Smashing Pumpkins, they recently shared details about the upcoming 25th anniversary reissue of their 2000 albums, ‘Machina/The Machines of God’ and ‘Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music’.

They also announced a huge upcoming show at London’s Gunnersbury Park on August 10, alongside a trio of other UK dates. The Gunnersbury Park show will also feature Skunk Anansie and White Lies as special guests, and you can visit here to buy tickets.

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