Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst are both getting into the podcast game, with new shows on a podcast network led by Bill Maher.
Maher revealed the deals in a new interview with Variety, noting how well he connected with the two musicians after they appeared on his own show, Club Random, last year. “I never knew Fred or Billy,” he said. “But something good happens there, and I can feel like I’m best friends for life with somebody who I just talked to for an hour and a half. That’s the quality we want — a nighttime feel.”
Maher didn’t reveal any hard details about the shows, such as when they might premiere or what format they’ll take. Durst’s show will reportedly center around a subject very near and dear to his heart — UFOs and conspiracy theories (seriously, the man is like a nu-metal Tom DeLonge in this regard). There were no hints at what kinds of topics Corgan would cover on his show, and a rep for the musician did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for more information.
For Durst, the podcast gig comes at a busy time for the musician: He’s gearing up for a hefty summer tour with Limp Bizkit, and he’s also got a crucial supporting role in I Saw the TV Glow, the upcoming horror-thriller from filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Schoenbrun raved about working with Durst and said casting him was their “creative white whale” for the film: “Like if I can make that happen, this could be the weird fever dream that I’m hoping it will be,” Schoenbrun said.
They added: “He’s an incredible performer and on screen, seeing Fred Durst carries really specific allusions to a certain moment, and a certain kind of white male anger that it was really important to have in the stew of the movie. It would be one thing to cast someone who looked like Fred Durst, but to have the man himself glaring at you from across the room, I think the opportunity to have that unique and evocative presence on the screen does something that you can’t replicate any other way.”
As for Corgan, he might need to squeeze in his new podcasting duties as he continues to search for a new guitarist for Smashing Pumpkins. The band put out an open call for auditions back in January, and a few weeks later they revealed they’d received over 10,000 applications. No word yet on who the new band member will be, but one has to assume they’ll be finalizing any decision soon as the Pumpkins are set to launch a European tour with Weezer in June; they’ll then provide support for Green Day on their Saviors stadium tour, starting at the end of July.