Billy Corgan Sues Former Bandmate

Piecing together the paper trail, no comments and ancient band lore, ChartAttack.com has learned that Billy Corgan, frontman and founder of Smashing Pumpkins has initiated a lawsuit against Ron Roesing, former drummer of The Marked. Corgan and Roesing formed the band in 1984/1985 that would later evolve into the Pumpkins 1987. Apparently the lawsuit stems from the release of Hopefulness and Oh So Finite Happiness, a charity double-disc that Roesing supposedly put out that has raised the ire of William Corgan's lawyers.

When ChartAttack.com contacted lawyers Leslie Frank and Jill Berliner from the L.A. law firm King, Purtich, Holmes, Paterno & Berliner to comment on the lawsuit, they flatly refused. Tyson Parker, national media manager for the band's label Virgin Music Canada was unable to respond to questions.

However, we have obtained the paperwork related to the suit, which states: "This firm represents William Corgan. Roesing is illegally exploiting our client's name to promote goods and services, falsely implying that our client has granted him an exclusive license to sell or otherwise exploit phonorecords containing the Masters and Compositions." We spoke to Roesing, who now lives in the United Kingdom, about the lawsuit and early Pumpkin history which he says has been re-written by Corgan.

"What they are supposedly suggesting is that I have this CD, Hopefulness and Oh So Finite Happiness. I haven't sold that CD. I haven't made any profit from that CD. I took samples from Billy," Roesing says about the lawsuit. "They are just sending out a generic threat. They haven't a clue what they are doing."

Both parties won't answer questions directly relating to the suit, but Roesing was able to allude to what the lawsuit stems from: "They are talking about a sample that I put in a song called 'Smugly,' which is my nickname for Billy. They don't know when I put it out [Hopefulness and Oh So Finite Happiness]. If I put it out. They don't know anything. They make all these demands and on the last page [of the legal brief that ChartAttack.com has read] they say they don't know anything."

Granted it's done in legal speak that reads something like this: "Nothing contained herein or omitted herefrom is intended or shall be construed as an admission of any fact... claims or remedies which our client has assert or may assert in connection with this matter." Much of ChartAttack.com's interview with Roesing was conducted off the record, as his lawyers have asked him not to comment on the case.

While Corgan's lawyers continue their fact-finding mission through the courts, Roesing says, "On the album they are suggesting that I used material that belonged to Billy." Essentially this is what the dispute stems from.

Even though the Pumpkins rose to fame after Roesing left the band, he doesn't harbour much ill will towards Corgan or The Pumpkins. In fact he says, "I'm trying to make amends with William. It is my personal belief that this fax and lawsuit was not generated by him. I want the public to be aware that this is how his law firm operates. I want them to know that Billy is suing me, which is pathetic, if we were friends for a very long time [up to Gish], which we were, he wouldn't be suing me. I have been very good about not suing him. Our friend Jonathan [Morrill] sued him for half a million dollars regarding The Marked videos."

According to allstarnews.com on May 22 Jonathan Morrill, owner of J.M. Productions filed a lawsuit accusing Corgan of breach of contract, stealing and allowing the commercial release of a video/documentary from 1986 entitled Video Marked. Morrill claims that Corgan stayed with him when the singer lived in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1986. A video documentary was made during this time, of which only two copies were ever made - a master and a backup. Corgan allegedly took the backup with him back to Chicago."

Billy claims all his stuff got stolen from the early Marked material and early Pumpkin material prior to Jimmy [Chamberlin] joining. I don't know if that is true or not, I read that and people have told me that," Roesing says.

Morrill claims that Vieuphoria, released in 1994 to coincide with the B-side compilation Pisces Iscariot, contained footage that he shot for Video Marked. Interestingly enough he approached Corgan about releasing the documentary and was told that the frontman didn't want to release it, citing poor audio quality as the reason. It wasn't until 1999 that Morill became aware that Vieuphoria contained material from Video Marked. Roesing has contacted the same law firm that is representing Morill to counsel him should Corgan continue to pursue the suit further.

To read Ron Roesing's account of the early Pumpkin days follow this link.