The third and final part of The Smashing Pumpkins’ rock opera ‘ATUM’ was released this past May. In a recent appearance on Power Hour, frontman Billy Corgan spoke about how they were hacked and why he had to pay the hacker ransom to get back the unreleased tracks. The singer explained:
“We had turned in the record, and it was in the process of sort of being evaluated and prepared for what became the release, and somebody at that end of the system was hacked. Next thing you know, a fan wrote me on Instagram, slid into my DMs, and said, ‘By the way, nine of your songs are floating around on Reddit.'”
The rocker also added that six months before the release of the album, the FBI had to get involved. He expressed:
“I had a minor heart attack and found out that, at that point, the hacker was only offering the songs to whoever would pay a particular sum, and so we went ahead and paid that sum. Somehow, we were able to not only stop the leak from happening, this was six months before the album even came out, but then the FBI got involved.”
Corgan revealed how they were able to resolve the situation by adding:
“The hacker had used some kind of Venmo or something that was able to be tracked by the FBI. So thankfully, and the other shocking part was it wasn’t just our music. This hacker had a list of crazy stuff unreleased stuff by other major bands.”
Billy had opened up to KROQ’s ‘Klein/Ally Show‘ regarding the tracks that were ‘floating around’ on Reddit and said:
“They were all probably the most catchy, single-y type songs. You’re pretty much giving away the album before you even have a chance to set your feet on the ground.”
You can watch Billy Corgan’s appearance on the ‘Power Hour’ below.
