I was just out of high school and starting college when I heard Gish. Our local college radio station played a track off of it. Then a buddy had a cassette and played it for me in the car. I soon finally tracked down my own copy of the CD and was hooked. It was one of the albums that changed my vision of what music was. Until that point, I was mainly stuck in heavy metal and classic rock mode. I played it loud and proud all the time in my 1984 Camaro with booming speakers in the back seat.

It was at that time in my life when music would become my being.  One of the things I did was putting together local concerts and festivals. After listening to that album for a week straight, I decided I wanted to know more about this band, Smashing Pumpkins and how could I get them to play in our town. In those days the internet and google searches didn’t exist, so I had to scour magazines, college radio, the album inserts and ultimately the phone book as I found out the leader of the band was Billy Corgan and he lived in the Chicago area. I couldn’t believe it. A local band?! I found his parents home phone number in the white pages. His family home in the burbs. I waited on calling the number for a long time before finally doing it. When I did, I reached his mother. I introduced myself and told her I really loved his band and wanted to see if I could get him to play our fest. She laughed and said she would share my info. Not being shocked, I never heard back. But, I that album is still one of my top 10 records of all time. To this date, I have worked covering Billy Corgan and his bands throughout the years as I became a rock photographer. Everywhere from his coffee shop up north to arena shows at United Center to Smashing Pumpkins final show in 99 at the Metro. At each of these live performances, I look forward to hearing a track from this record with baited breath.