Joe Mantegna | The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan
The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan
Billy Corgan
4.6 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 2 July 2025
⏱️ 87 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Billy Corgan sits down with Joe Mantegna to trace his journey from singing Beatles tunes in his Chicago high-school band The Weasels, playing clubs with acts like Neil Diamond and Chicago, to dodging mob-run venues, goth “Judas” cult fans, and finally finding his groove in theatrical productions of West Side Story, Hair and Godspell. He recalls tiny residual checks, eight-shows-a-week stamina, and how that grind led to a Tony Award and iconic turns in The Godfather Part III, Criminal Minds and The Simpsons.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ironically you mentioned it. I got a residual check for a penny yesterday for Simon and Simon one penny There were Judas groupies. There was a group called the process. I got girls. Yeah, I'm down They came to see God's ball and I'm playing Judas and God spell at the intermission It's a good story Yeah, and I walk in and he ordered a place six because Joe Montenny is someone a bitch You're gonna be in a godfather movie. Oh my But that's all I knew the pizza guy knows the pizza guy I know you're a big star. Oh, yeah, I'm a big star But we got to start here. Okay, the apocryphal's the apocryphal wow Ne the weasels The whole further back. You are going further back. This is your high school band? Yes, it was. |
| 0:45.3 | About 65? Well, about 64, 65. Yeah, that's correct. Take me. Take you back. I'm very interested in this part. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. And I get to tell us to a rock and roll god here. This is good for me. This is fun for me. Well, basically what it was is, it a junior high school and we were in English class. In my English class. And I remembered that the assignment was we wanted to do something on English history, England, English history. They said, you come back with a project based on something that has to do with the history of England and how it's affected. So the Beatles. So the Beatles. So another was, of course, everybody else was digging up things like, well, there's a Cromwell and there's this and that, everybody's digging up the kings of this. And there was another guy in the class was who's actually a wonderful musician for Neil Sardelli. And he had this idea, he goes, |
| 1:45.6 | you know, the Beatles are really big now. |
| 1:47.4 | He says, you know, I play guitar. He says, you sing, because I've been doing some singing in the theater department at the school at the time. He says, maybe we should just do, you know, that's English, right? And I said, yeah, that'd be cool. Could really didn't want to work very hard on this project. So he said, we'll do this, we'll do this thing, we'll come in, we'll learn a Beatles song, |
| 2:05.4 | you play the guitar, I'll sing it, and we'll say, well, this is part of English history. |
| 2:09.4 | The Beatles. on this project. So we said, we'll do this, we'll do this thing, we'll come in, we'll learn a Beatles song, you play the guitar, I'll sing it, and we'll say, well, this is part of English |
| 2:08.7 | history. But the Beatles, because they were like red hot at that time. So of course we did it. But when we did it, I mean, it was just him and I, and I think we had another guy in the class who just used like a bongo drum to just give us a little percussion. |
| 2:21.3 | What are we saying this song? |
| 2:22.5 | Yeah. |
| 2:23.0 | But the class went crazy. |
| 2:25.8 | Like, whoa, my god, it's the screen over. |
| 2:28.1 | It was like, we're like, hello. just give us a little percussion. What are we saying this on? But the class went crazy. |
| 2:25.9 | Like, whoa, my God, it's so great all day. |
| 2:28.2 | It was like, we're like, hello. Well, maybe we got more of this. Yeah, more of this. So we decided, just for fun, let's do, well, the teacher then asked us, you know, there's an assembly coming up. If you guys want to duplicate this at the assembly, I think the kids would enjoy this. |
| 2:43.0 | Yes. |
| 2:44.0 | So of course, we took it seriously. |
| 2:46.0 | We get this other guy, Chris. |
| 2:47.0 | Now, we're all Italian guys, because this is Cicero Illinois. |
| 2:49.6 | So you... to duplicate this at the assembly, I think the kids would enjoy this. Yes. So, of course, we took it seriously. |
| 2:45.7 | We get this other guy, Chris, now we're, there's all the tying guys because this is Cicero |
| 2:49.1 | Illinois. So you're either tying or Polish or something in between. Yeah. So it's Chris Montagna. Yes. Joe Montenna, Tommy Miserie and Neil Sordelli, these four people. We put together this thing. We didn't want to use the art style. |
| 3:05.9 | Maybe because it was named and then evolved. |
... |
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