Yungblud Reimagines His Hit in an Emotional Live Rendition of “Zombie” Featuring Billy Corgan

This summer, Billy Corgan joined Yungblud onstage at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago for a performance of “Zombie”, first released on the British singer’s 2025 album Idols.

A reworked studio version also features fellow Smashing Pumpkins band members, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and guitarist James Iha. It’s a dramatic anthem that echoes the catharsis of Corgan’s own emotional epics from the 1990s.

Here’s the story behind the lyrics as you check out the live version below.

Time Is Running Out

Yungblud begins by keeping a growing despair to himself. It’s out of fear of looking weak. Or, to continue the zombie metaphor, becoming a diminished form of who he once was.

If I was to talk about the words,
They would hurt, they would hurt.
So, if you were to ask about the pain,
I would lie, I would lie.
To fix my mind, I need time,
But it’s running out, it’s running out.

Yungblud explained in a statement that his grandmother inspired the song:

“The song was written initially about my grandmother going through serious injury and trauma, leading her to become a different person to who she was before. It’s about the feeling of deterioration and ugliness; shutting out the world and the people we love out of the fear of becoming a burden or an embarrassment,” he said.

Oh, I know that I can’t live without you,
But this world will keep turning if you do.
Would you even want me looking like a zombie?
Would you even want me, want me, want me?

The Infinite Sadness

He’s losing hope, and now he feels like a drain on his loved ones. Meanwhile, the rest of the world stares at him blankly as he senses time slipping away.

Corgan takes this verse on the live rendition. Though the spaceship here won’t last, Corgan knows better than most how melancholy stubbornly endures.

We could catch a spaceship to the moon,
But we’d crash; it wouldn’t last.
Because the world is just a figment of the fools,
A blank stare, they don’t care.
So, say your prayers, you’re almost there,
But it’s running out, it’s running out.

Photo by Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images