Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan aiding Highland Park victims

Billy Corgan headlining benefit concert tonight for shooting victims in his hometown

A man in a gray suit playing an acoustic guitar and singing into a microphone on a stage

July 27, 2022 12:41 PM PT

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan is headlining a charity event Wednesday in his hometown of Highland Park, Ill., where seven people were killed in a mass shooting at a parade on the Fourth of July.

Corgan and his partner, fashion designer Chloe Mendel, announced on July 15 that a concert benefiting victims of the massacre would take place Wednesday at 8 p.m. Central in the Chicago suburb.

The show, “Together and Together Again,” will also be livestreamed on the Smashing Pumpkins’ YouTube channel, where viewers will have the option to donate to the Highland Park Community Foundation’s shooting response fund. Proceeds from posters and T-shirts that read “Together and Together Again” and #HPSTRONG will also go to the foundation.

“For those that don’t know, I’ve lived in Highland Park for about 20 years — Chloe for about 10,” Corgan said in an Instagram video earlier this month.

“The horrible tragedy here on July 4 ... took so many lives and injured so many people and really [has] affected us as a community. ... We’re gonna have a very special charity concert that will be broadcast live on YouTube for free, and you’ll be able to make charitable donations there. There are gonna be other facets and details to come.”

The singer and guitarist also teased some “special guests,” including Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell is on the lineup as well.

In a recent interview with ABC News, Corgan said he’s been “trying to find the right songs [to perform] because there will be people here that were in this tragedy, and it might be the first time they really connect to the deeper emotional side.”

“We won’t be defined by [the shooting],” Mendel added. “We will be defined by how we’ve come together as a community and how we’ve healed and how we’ve helped each other.”

On July 8, Mendel and Corgan welcomed Highland Park community members back to Madame Zuzu’s — the tea house they own together in the Midwestern town — and thanked residents for their “support and patience.”

“We look forward to seeing you soon,” they said in a statement. “#HPStrong.”