Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan recently revealed in an interview with KROQ's "Klein/Ally Show" that he paid ransom to a hacker to prevent him from leaking several songs from the band's three-act "rock opera" ATUM.
Corgan said that the hacker got their hands on nine songs from the album around the time the record was about to be mixed and mastered.
"They were all probably the most catchy, single-y type songs," Corgan said. "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. 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."
Corgan said he paid the ransom out of his pocket, adding, "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."
Corgan also said the end result of the investigation is not yet known but that it seems the hacker has some other "shocking" leaks in their possession, including "classic stuff from bands of the past probably doing reissues."
(Photo: Jonathan Weiner)
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