Illinois Entertainer November 2017 | Page 48

Continued from page 24 ht! g i R e n o D Get It ions, E X tens olor, ,C Keratin course f and o ts! Haircu Been Rockstyle d Lately? Gi illiams-Coffey ma & Pam W THE Tom Bronke mo ATRE tions ARCADA Pro 749 Dundee Road - Wheeling IL ft Certific ates available! us on (847) 808-STYL Rockstyles.com Corgan also has to give credit where it’s due when it comes to his calm new demeanor. The birth of his son Augustus changed him in ways he never expected. “He’s awesome, and he came into the world in a strong spirit,” dad purrs. “So my job is just to get out of the way and fig- ure out how to help him. And he’s still young – he’s not quite two – but I certain- ly relate to how I felt, like, ‘When I felt this way, this is what the adults around me did, so I’m going to do the opposite – I’m going to make him feel that what he’s interested in is important, and that his imagination is valuable.’ And that’s where I’m lucky, in that my skill set feeds right into that. The things that I am? That’s a perfect fit for where he is – he’s very creative, and just a big spirit.” The parent is now viewing the universe through childlike eyes again, he admits. “And it’s the best gift, because you sud- denly think, ‘I can’t wait to go to Disneyland, just to see how he’ll react!’ You get excited all over again, because you re-live it through them. The only trick is not to project that it has to be a certain way, that they’ll have to see it or feel it the way you think you saw it or felt it. Because obviously, memory has a way of tainting our own childhood.” Speaking of Disneyland, no rundown of Corgan accomplishments – Billy, WILLIAM PATRICK CORGAN William Patrick, or otherwise – would be complete without a mention of his strange appearance on Seth MacFarlane’s still- hilarious Family Guy, in an episode where Peter Griffin, trying to process complicated facts and figures in his blurry brain, can’t stop thinking about an actual snapshot of Corgan, looking incredibly displeased, on a ride at Disneyland. “And that’s the weird world we live in,” he says, pleased that MacFarlane thought enough of him to include him in the show. “If you look at the picture, I’m sitting next to my tour manag- er, Doug Goodman, and I’m sort of com- plaining about something. “So they caught me in a moment of complaining about, I dunno, rock and roll itself, and it got turned into a meme. But I’d had this great, wonderful day and a fun time – I rode on all the rides and took tons of pictures with fans, and I’m smiling in every one. And suddenly somebody takes a picture and you’re cannon fodder in the meme culture wars. And the best way to deal with all that stuff is to just have a laugh and shrug. Because when Neil young tells you to do something, you lis- ten. So I’ve got one lane now. And it’s my own.”