Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins compared YUNGBLUD to Elton John , leaving the young musician flattered.
The conversation took place during a new episode of Billy Corgan's podcast, The Magnificent Others , last Thursday, the 2nd. The musicians talked about YUNGBLUD's transition from pop to rock 'n' roll, and Billy noted that Elton John also started out making pop music and then migrated to the world of rock, becoming more famous.
“That’s the person I compare you to the most… Elton John. And what I mean by that is you can sing pop, you can sing a ballad and the audience will sing along. You can sing a song like 'Tiny Dancer' and it would sound great and believable, but you can also sing rock. That was the kind of thing a pianist did, and that was the style of the time. But when he turned to rock, that’s when he really exploded. That shows why Elton John reached that other level and why he was a stadium performer and not just a big pop artist,” Billy concluded.
So, YUNGBLUD agreed with the comparison and said it surprised him: “Because it goes to a deeper level and I think that’s what’s beautiful. I’m a guitar shop kid whose upbringing was T. Rex, [David] Bowie, Sex Pistols, The Exploited , The Clash , and I discovered NWA , shoegaze, bands like you and Public Enemy and everything else, myself, that I dreamed of. The guitar shop is almost like the graveyard of rock stars who tried. And to end up here? I feel like I’m seven years old again in my dad’s shop,” YUNGBLUD concluded.
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