The Smashing Pumpkins Paid Ransom To Hacker Over Leaked Songs

Keavin Wiggins | 05-07-2023

Smashing Pumpkins Album art

Album art

The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan sat down with KROQ's Klein. Ally. Show. to discuss their new album "ATUM", and during the discussion he revealed that nine songs from the album leaked six months ago and he paid a ransom to keep them from being spread.

He said, "They were all probably the most catchy, single-y type songs. So it's like, not only is it six months too early, you're pretty much giving away the album before you even have a chance to set your feet into the ground. And somehow, some hacker was offering the files for money, and we were able to trace it and pay off and keep it from leaking.

"The FBI got involved... I don't know how they got what they got... (Ransom was paid) out of my pocket, unfortunately. What we were able to do was stop the leak from happening, because it was a mercenary person who had hacked somebody -- I don't want to say who -- and they had other stuff from other artists.

"It wasn't like some Pumpkins fan that was hellbent on breaking it on Reddit. Somehow, they gave some information that allowed the FBI to track them... I don't know the end result of it yet... They had stuff that was shocking to me. Like classic stuff from bands of the past." Check out the full interview here.