This is going to sound crazy, but I discovered Smashing Pumpkins because I had a huge crush on Simon Rex and watched him on MTV every day after school. At the time I mainly listened to Paula Abdul, Maria Carey, Janet Jackson, etc. Simon played BWBW every single day and I slowly just because obsessed with it. I was 12 and it was like nothing I had ever heard and it made me feel a way that I had never felt. I didn’t convince my parents to buy me the album until January of 1996 and in the meantime I scoured AOL for all information I could find about SP. I spent hours in SP chatrooms, downloading MP3 files, and learning as much old material as I could. I will never forget when my parents bought MCIS for me and I listened all the way through. We were on vacation and I got it at some random music store in a mall and stayed in the hotel room with my Discman listening as much as I could. 

I am no less of a fan 25 years later. There are so many things that happened because of MCIS. I fell in love with another SP fan and left my small hometown for him, I have made friendships that will last a lifetime because of SP, I have traveled all over the U.S. and even to Paris to see SP, and I feel like I am forever part of a special community of people who just get it. Thank you for making the soundtrack of my life and for making Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, my favorite art in the entire world.