Iconic musician and famous comedian address half-brother rumors

Musician Billy Corgan and comedian Bill Burr aren’t actual related. But that doesn’t mean they won’t get a kick out of the self-started rumors.

This past November, Corgan was a guest on the “Howie Mandel Does Stuff” podcast. During the episode, Mandel’s production team accidentally put up a picture of Burr instead of Corgan. The Smashing Pumpkins guitarist/frontman went with it and comprised an elaborate story, considering they could be half brothers.

“Most of my friends don’t even know this story,” Corgan said. “About 10 years ago, one of my brothers was having a birthday party, and my stepmother was there, who was obviously married to my father. And my stepmother said to me, ‘Do you know who Bill Burr is?’ Now at that point, I had never heard of Bill Burr. I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know he was a comedian or anything. He could have been the guy down the street.”

Corgan then continued the story, like one of those fables you hear around the campfire at summer camp.

“I thought the first thing she was going to say was, ‘Oh, I thought you’d notice the resemblance,’” said Corgan. ”She goes, ‘I think it might be one of your father’s illegitimate children. Bill Burr might be one of the children that your father sired in his days being a traveling musician.’ This is a true story. I’m not making this up; there is no joke in this.”

Mandel had something up his sleeve in his new episode on Tuesday, with Burr now being in the guest chair. Thirty minutes in, Mandel brought out Corgan as a surprise.

“Did you ever think the fact that I never told that story, that maybe you shouldn’t?” Burr says to Corgan. “It’s not that I don’t like [Corgan], it reminds me of all of that s—.”

Throughout the rest of the episode, both Corgan and Burr play along with the story — even going as far as trading stories about their “dad.” In the end, Corgan and Burr are siblings in the same way actors Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson (not at all).

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Murjani Rawls may be reached at mrawls@njadvancemedia.com.