Billy Corgan has defended his ongoing friendship with Marilyn Manson despite the latter being accused of sexual assault and abuse by multiple women.
“As a Christian person, you have to stand by your friends, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have an opinion, and it doesn’t mean you’re not critical,” Corgan said on the New York Times‘ Popcast earlier this week. “In his case — and I’m not here to adjudicate it — but the D.A. looked at the case for five years.”
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman added: “In some cases, I knew personal things behind the scenes that are not in the public sphere. I personally didn’t feel that he was guilty of the things that he was being charged with, and ultimately the fact that the DA didn’t pursue … [it] was commensurate with the person I knew.”
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced in January 2025, after investigating for four years, that his office wouldn’t pursue criminal charges against Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, saying the statute of limitations had run out on the domestic violence claims against him and that prosecutors couldn’t prove charges of sexual assault beyond a reasonable doubt.
“We recognize and applaud the courage and resilience of the women who came forward to make reports and share their experiences, and we thank them for their cooperation and patience with the investigation,” Hochman’s office said in a statement at the time. “While we are unable to bring charges in this matter, we recognize that the strong advocacy of the women involved has helped bring greater awareness to the challenges faced by survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault.”
Manson has faced accusations of sexual misconduct from numerous women, including actresses Evan Rachel Wood and Esmé Bianco as well as model Ashley Morgan Smithline and former assistant Ashley Walters.
Wood, who was in a relationship with Manson for a number of years, came forward with her claims in 2021. “The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson,” she alleged on Instagram at the time. “He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander or blackmail.”
Manson sued Wood for defamation in 2022 but he dropped the lawsuit in 2024, and the two reached a settlement in which he agreed to cover her legal fees.
Manson, who has denied all of the allegations against him, has faced civil lawsuits from Bianco, settling her case in 2023; Smithline, whose case was dismissed that year, and she later recanted her claims; and Walters, whose sexual abuse lawsuit was recently reopened for a second time.
“I guess it’s one of those things where I don’t want the world to tell me who my friends are and who I should associate with,” Corgan told Popcast. “That’s politically, socially, and in Brian’s case, we have a relationship that goes back close to 30 years.”
Corgan also noted that Manson’s wife Lindsay’s twin sister is married to the Pumpkins’ James Iha, leading him to consider Manson “basically a part of our family.”
“There’s a deeper set of relationships there,” he added.
Beyond that, Corgan hinted at some insider knowledge of the legal proceedings against Manson that allowed him to make the determinations he did.
“Anyone in that situation struggles with the accusations, the seriousness of the accusations. But again, I also knew the inside baseball of the case. I knew certain people who were involved, and so you make those evaluations,” Corgan said. “At the end of the day, I feel I made the right determination, but if things had come out….” he said. “Like people would ask me privately, ‘Well what happens if da da da…’ And I’d say, ‘If he’s guilty or anybody in that situation is guilty, they should go to jail.’ I’m not saying I have any moral supremacy here. I’m saying it’s a case-by-case basis. But I don’t like the idea of… this kind of witch mob thing bothers me.”