I cannot recall for sure, but it was either 1991 or 1992. The Smashing Pumpkins were playing at the Paramount in Seattle and I was on the list +1 for the show. My son, Dashiell was twelve at the time and was a pretty big fan of the band (as was I). There was a special after show meet-and-greet Billy event, and about 150 of us were all hanging around waiting for the star of the show to arrive.
After about half an hour, and hush comes over the room, and my son excitedly whispers “Look pop, it’s Billy Corgan!” And so it was, and damn, he is a seriously imposing figure – especially with the extra six inches of lift that his Frankenstein platforms where giving him. Everybody in the room seems too paralyzed to walk up to their idol, so I say to Dashiell, “Go up and introduce yourself!” He says, “Really? You think so?” I’m like, “yeah, your twelve, you can still do stuff that you won’t be able to get away with as easily when your older. Go talk to him!” So he does.
My 4’3″ tall son walks up to the imposing giant of a figure and being the very first person in the room with enough nerve to break the room, says, “Hi, I’m Dashiell!” All the young worshipers seem to be in a state of utter disbelief that this kid just walked up and began chatting with Billy. My son quickly becomes so confident that he tells Billy which songs he didn’t feel were as strong and why etc. The room is still awfully quiet so you can pretty much hear the entire conversation, and looking around the room I can see that certain people have a horrified look on their faces, that this little kid would ever have such nerve to offer any genuine opinions/criticism to the man of the hour. The best thing though was that Billy was super cool with my son and had a very real and engaged conversation with him. He seemed genuinely interested in what he had to say and was not at all the rock-star persona that I’ve heard about so often.
Billy talked with Dashiell for close to fifteen minutes, and everybody in the room was starting to get noticeably annoyed and agitated, no doubt fearing that they wouldn’t get their turn. I finally walked up and said “We should go Dash,” and we did. I wish I’d have brought a camera. Great show followed by a really fun memory with my son.
so awesome… tell him that there aren’t too many people in the world who have had positive social interactions with him…