William Patrick Corgan—“Billy” to his friends, former bandmates, and fans—continues to play the name game around the release of his latest album, Ogilala. When he first announced plans for the record, the former Smashing Pumpkins frontman and teahouse entrepreneur set aside the childish moniker of “Billy” for his Christian name, which was the only suitable handle for his second solo album, middling though it was. Beyond maturity, though, the appeal of the switch was that “it irritated people,” Corgan told CBS Morning. “Then I thought, ‘OK, I’m definitely going to do this.’”
Now, after presumably having all of his towels and golf socks re-monogrammed with “WPC,” Corgan has quietly slipped back to being Billy again. As Pitchfork notes, Ogilala is credited to one “Billy Corgan” on streaming services like Spotify and AppleMusic. His rebranded VEVO channel has also undergone a change, reverting back to BillyCorganVEVO from WilliamPCorganVEVO. And because no William Patrick Corgan is safe, there’s even new Ogilala artwork out that nixes the initials.
Corgan hasn’t issued any kind of explanation for all the revisions. Despite all the change, he’s still just Billy on the page.