Billy Corgan Tells Story of the Long Lost ‘Gish’ Guitar He Found in Flushing [VIDEO]
We recently wrote about Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan's being reunited with his beloved 'Gish' guitar after 27 years in Flushing, Michigan. Now he details the story of the guitar and their reunion in a new 8-minute video.
Billy Corgan's guitar was stolen after a show at St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit way back in 1992. As Billy says many times throughout the video, this guitar was pivotal in crafting the early sound of the band and can be heard all over their debut album 'Gish.'
After trying (and failing) to recover the yellow Fender Stratocaster for years, BillCo tried to find a suitable replacement but never succeeded. He even had a few custom guitars built to replicate the magic of the Strat, but as any guitarist can tell you -- sometimes that magic is impossible to replicate. Some guitars just have a thing, that is accidental and impossible to explain. For Billy, this was that guitar.
Years passed, 27 to be exact, and after chasing down dead ends Billy finally got to bring his baby home thanks to a family in Flushing, who even passed on the reward money. Billy details the story in full in the mini-doc below.