-You're gonna go on tour.
Smashing Pumpkins, through the fall.
And how is touring these days?
I've heard you say that it's less fun
being on a bus for six weeks. -With guys.
-With guys, yeah. -With guys.
Used to be, yeah, in the '90s, but I got my own bus now.
-Oh, gotcha. So you're solo bus?
-I've got my 11-piece band all squashed up
in a little camper van, and I've got a huge bus
about the size of this studio.
Touring America, like, "Great." [ Laughter ]
-Do the other -- Do they resent you, you think,
your 11-person band,
that you have this lovely bus to yourself?
-I thought so, yeah. -Yeah.
-Yeah, yeah. [ Laughter ]
-You don't feel it on stage, though.
-Not particularly. -Okay. That's good.
-It's my name on the poster, so...
[ Laughter ]
-That's a good way of looking at it.
You're also touring with U2 in Australia in November.
-That's right. -And I heard that you and Bono
had a night where you sang karaoke together.
And yet there's no -- no memory of it.
-Well, apparently -- Apparently, they had a party
for the crew in Bogotá, and apparently we did karaoke,
and we did the song, "Kung Fu Fighting."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And, apparently -- You haven't got footage of this?
-No, no, I swear we don't. [ Laughter ]
-And, apparently, we did the moves, as well.
-Yeah, you did some kung fu fighting.
-So they say. [ Laughter ]
But, I mean, it was full of Irish people
who will notoriously exaggerate everything.
-Could've been some just soft kicking.
-I mean, I genuinely have no recollection of it whatsoever.
Neither does he. -Wow.
It's one of those lovely myths
that we will never know whether it was true or not.
-I mean, thank God no one's got footage.
[ Laughter ]
-How is it for you now? I mean, obviously,
you've been doing this for a long time.
How have your fans, how have the concerts changed
20, 25 years into doing this?
-It's, uh -- I guess, uh...
I've got young kids coming, and I've become quite the thing
for middle-aged women. -Uh-huh.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
On my last tour in America, we did a gig somewhere
up north in the snow, and it was --
There was like three women on the front row,
and it became apparent that one of these women was a huge fan
and the other two weren't. [ Laughter ]
And I was halfway through a song,
and I'm giving it the [bleep] -Yeah.
-And one of the women on the front row,
she's doing this with her phone. And she just goes...
[ Laughter ]
And she looks over, sees me looking at her,
she just goes, "Sorry."
[ Laughter ]
And I'm kind of playing her, going, "I'm sorry about that."
[ Laughter ]
"Go buy a T-shirt." [ Laughter ]
-What about you? You have three kids?
Is that right? -I do have three kids.
-Do they have a connection to your music?
-Well, it's kind of a rule.
They've got to kind of fake a little bit of interest in it.
-Okay.
-Even at a lower level, they've got to go, "Yeah, yeah.
It's a great song." [ Laughter ]
They like -- They like the modern hip-hop, Kanye,
and all that kind of thing. -Okay, gotcha.
-They're kind of into it.
You know, they've got to be into it because, you know,
they're gonna benefit from it. -Yeah.
-At some point. -Down the line, yeah.
This is sort of -- This is a big deal for them.
You're sort of famously -- Your football club
is Manchester City, coming off an incredible season.
-Amazing. -Amazing season.
And, you know, we sort of from a distance know there are
two big clubs in Manchester --
Manchester United, Manchester City.
-Well, we don't mention the other one.
-We don't mention the other one.
Well, we were talking about your kids
and how they sort of are --
You know, you asked them to be a little bit of fans.
What would happen if one of your kids wanted to be a fan
of the other Manchester team?
-[ Breathes deeply ]
[ Laughter ]
That would be tough.
I mean, I'd probably drive him as far away
from my house as possible. [ Laughter ]
And I'll leave him on the motorway.
[ Laughter ]
-The point would come across.
-These things get sorted out quite quickly in Manchester.
It's just like, you know --
You say to, like, a baby, "You don't know this yet.
You don't know this yet.
But you're gonna support City, and that's the end of it."
-That's it.
-That's it. That's the end of it.
-So you have had no trouble on that front.
-No, no, they're kind of big into it, and they --
I mean, when they first came to the matches, like all kids,
they've got the attention span of a small flea.
-Yeah.
What's the right age, did you find?
When can they finally engage?
-I've brought my eldest son when he was about 7.
And, you know, kids now, they're onto social media,
so he brought his iPad to the match.
-Yeah. -And I was like,
"I'm not sure you're gonna need that."
[ Laughter ]
And he ended up on it, you know.
Because the match is too long. It's like an hour and a half.
They're kind of into it now, though.