Billy Corgan floated a wild theory about how he could be related to comedian Bill Burr during an appearance on the latest episode of Howie Mandel's Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast. And while it's definitely a far-fetched theory, you can't deny that there isn't a resemblance between the two men.
The subject came up coincidentally, when Mandel realized that they accidentally had used Burr's image instead of Corgan's in the graphic. "It happens," Corgan admitted of the likeness. "There are actually me and Bill Burr memes. If I had Bill Burr’s money I’d be happy to be Bill Burr.”
"But I do have a Bill Burr story, if you want to hear it, and I've never told it anywhere," the 57-year-old said. "In fact, most of my friends don’t even know this story."
Corgan recalled that about 10 years ago, he was at a birthday party for one of his brothers and his stepmother, who had been married to his father, was in attendance. "And my stepmother said to me, 'Do you know who Bill Burr is?' Now at that point, I had never heard of Bill Burr, I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know he was a comedian or anything—he could have been the guy down the street."
And she said, 'Well, he’s this comedian,'" he continued. "And I think I even somehow called up a picture on the phone and I kind of noticed right away, 'Gee, he kind of looks like my father.' Bill Burr looks more like my father than Bill Burr looks like me or I look like Bill Burr."
At this point in the story, Mandel appeared clearly in shock with his jaw hanging wide open.
"So, I said to my mother like, 'Why are you asking me this?' I thought maybe the first thing she was going to say was, ‘Oh, I thought you’d notice the resemblance,'" Corgan recounted. "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 of being a traveling musician.'"
"This is a true story. I’m not making this up, there is no joke in this. This is a true story. I’ve never told this anywhere, honestly," he emphasized.
Corgan said that at that point, he began to put the pieces together and realized that he and Burr were about the same age. And then he remembered something his father had once told him.
"And my father did once tell me that I had a half brother named Bill who was basically born around the same time as me. He told me on my 18th birthday. This is all totally true, I swear to God," he revealed. "So I said, 'Well, how many other possible illegitimate children does daddy have because he did tell me about this one Bill.'"
"And again, I didn’t know that Bill was a famous comedian," Corgan reiterated. "He could have been a guy that’s working down the street at the Whack Factory in Chicago. I had no idea who he was. None. Zero."
"And she goes, 'I think there’s 12 total,'" he recalled his stepmother telling him, adding: "Well, he was a traveling musician."
Corgan continued, saying that he's never brought it up, even though he and Burr have connections in common. He also noted that he looked up Burr's life history and didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so had no reason to get in contact with him. (In fact, the 56-year-old was born in Canton, MA on June 10, 1968, to nurse Linda Ann and dentist Robert Burr.)
At that point, Mandel floated the idea of calling Burr to ask him what he thought of the story, to which Corgan very reasonably replied: "I don’t want to be made fun of by Bill Burr."
"He’s very funny and I really don’t want the psychological darts in my heart," he continued. "All respect to Bill Burr. He’s obviously very talented and funny."
Yet, despite the obvious likeness between Burr and Corgan's father, ultimately, the singer thinks it's just a big coincidence.
"Can I say one last thing. It’s my belief at this point, because I’ve sat on the story for 10 years, that I don’t think Bill Burr and I are related. I think it’s just one of those things, you know," he added, noting that Bono and Robin Williams also both look very similar. "So what I'm saying is, there are just people in the world who just look alike."
