Ever the storyteller, Smashing Pumpkins singer/guitarist Billy Corgan recently explained why he and comedian Bill Burr could have more in common than their passing resemblance and shared first name. During a recent appearance on Howie Mandel’s Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast, Corgan revealed that there’s a chance they could be half-brothers.
In what was either a tongue-in-cheek bit or a funny coincidence, Mandel realized his team put up a photo of Burr behind him. After acknowledging lookalike memes he’s seen online, Corgan shared a story about their possible familial connection.
“Most of my friends don’t even know this story,” Corgan began. “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. 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.”
Corgan continued, “And she said, ‘Well, he’s this comedian.’ 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. So I said to my mother, ‘Why are you asking me this?’”
“I thought the first thing she was going to say was, ‘Oh, I thought you’d notice the resemblance,’” Corgan added. “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.’ This is a true story. I’m not making this up; there is no joke in this.”
Continuing the story, Corgan remembered his father also mentioning the possibility. “[He] did once tell me that I had a half-brother named Bill who was basically born around the same time as me,” he said.
As a kicker, Corgan revealed his stepmother said his father sired a total of 12 children out of wedlock. He also admitted to looking into the veracity of the story and wasn’t sure if all the pieces added up.
To further clarify, Corgan said he doesn’t actually believe that he and Burr are related, but it’s “just one of those things,” like Bono looking like Robin Williams. “There are people in the world who just look alike,” he said.
Corgan is 57 years old and Burr is 56. Corgan spoke about having a “complicated relationship” with his father following his death in 2021. Meanwhile, Burr is listed on his Wikipedia page as growing up with both his parents, including father Robert Burr, who was a dentist.
Without both of them taking a 23andMe test, there’s no way of telling whether they are actually related, but it certainly does make for an interesting story.