‘The truth of the matter is, if he feels bad, I feel bad,’ CGT judge says
Howie Mandel has apologized to Bill Burr after inviting his alleged half-brother Billy Corgan to crash the comedian’s recent interview on his Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast.
When Burr was a guest on Mandel’sDoes Stuff podcast last month, Corgan, who has previously theorized that the two could be half-brothers, was a surprise special guest.
Last year, Corgan told Mandel that his stepmother said she thought the two might be siblings adding to that fact that his “father did once tell me that I had a half-brother named Bill, who was born around the same time as me.”
“So, about 10 years ago, one of my brothers was having a birthday party and my stepmother was there who was obviously married to my father. And my stepmother said to me, ‘Do you know who Bill Burr is?’ Now at that point, I had never heard of Bill Burr, I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know he was a comedian or anything. He could have been the guy down the street,” Corgan recalled to Mandel.
His stepmom continued by explaining who Burr was and then pulled up a photo of him on her cellphone.
“I kind of noticed right away, ‘Gee, he kind of looks like my father,’” the singer said. “Bill Burr looks more like my father than Bill Burr looks like me or I look like Bill Burr.”
Corgan’s stepmother then shared her suspicion that Burr might have been one of his dad’s “illegitimate children.”
“‘Bill Burr might be one of the children that your father sired in his days of being a travelling musician,’” Corgan remembered her saying to him. “This is a true story. I’m not making this up, there is no joke in this. This is a true story. I’ve never told this anywhere, honestly.”
When the two met on Mandel’s podcast, Burr jokingly called the Canada’s Got Talent judge a “d***” and admonished Corgan for airing the news they might be related in an interview.
“Did you ever think the fact that I never told that story, that maybe you shouldn’t?” Burr asked, calling Mandel “rude” and accusing him of setting up the encounter to boost his “ratings.”
Some listeners thought it was all in good fun. But when Burr later appeared on The Rich Eisen Show, he said he was unhappy Mandel tried to shock him with the bombshell revelation and Corgan’s arrival in the studio.
“Howie did what he did because he is a Hollywood whore, and he doesn’t care what happens,” Burr said. “He could have said something, and he just brings up all that weirdness,” Burr said. “Billy’s fine. That’s the first time I ever met him, and it was fine, but I did not appreciate what Howie did. No, not at all.”
This week, Mandel insisted to his daughter and Does Stuff co-host, Jackie, and his guests, twin brother comedians and actors Randy and Jason Sklar, that he meant no harm when he brought Burr and Corgan together.
“I legitimately thought I was doing something nice, I swear to you. I thought it was funny,” he said. “Bill Burr said I’m a ‘Hollywood whore.’ I should be proud of that? I’m not.”
Mandel read some of the headlines outlining Burr’s anger over the encounter and said he has tried to reach out to smooth things over.
“Bill Burr has not peeped,” Mandel said. “I texted him and said, ‘Good episode.’ Didn’t answer. I said, ‘Is there anything I can do to further this this, to follow up’? No answer … The truth of the matter is, if he feels bad, I feel bad.”