Billy Corgan Would’ve Punched Kanye West If He Interrupted Him At The Grammys

But he thinks Kim would take him out easily.

February 26, 2015

BILLY CORGAN OUT THE CAR NOW! The Smashing Pumpkins frontman has been known for his pugnacious side—he was involved in professional wrestling at one point, for Christ's sake—but in a recent interview with Australian TV network Channel 7's The Morning Show (via Stereogum), Corgan weighed in with an especially fisticuffs-themed take on Kanye West's stage-storming incident at this year's Grammys.

"I've been on that podium too and if someone got up on my stage I'd knock them out," Corgan told them. I don't care who it is, I would've knocked them out … That's my stage. I earned the right to be on the stage at that moment. That was Beck's moment." He also specified that although he doesn't know who would win a fight between him and Kanye, he knows what the deciding factor would be: "Between Kanye and I would be a stand-off but Kim would take me down."

Corgan had more to say about the incident too, that was far less inflammatory and more reasonable (or, at least, more reasonable than other people's takes): "Kanye's from Chicago so I gotta be careful, I gotta represent. I think it's inappropriate for any artist to take somebody else's moment and make it their own … In that particular moment you're basically saying that everything that Beck's done to be in that position is negated because in your own mind it's not relevant to you, or your own thing. I didn't think that's the moment to do it. Maybe afterwards you can say that, you can put it in your own blog. But to jump on stage and steal that moment, to re-appropriate it in your own way I think is inappropriate. I will add — and I mean this in all seriousness — the problem with the social media era is the Grammys will be rewarded for bad behavior and so by extension will Kanye … It really should be a celebration of accomplishment and it becomes another version of high school."

In the end, though, he believes 'Ye is pure-hearted: "I don't know Kanye, but I think he's speaking from his heart. He believes what he's saying. I just think that's an inappropriate venue to do it because in essence that's Beck's moment."

Lead image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Billy Corgan Would’ve Punched Kanye West If He Interrupted Him At The Grammys