Yungblud teams up with Smashing Pumpkins: here's the new version of “Zombie”

After earning the public blessing of Ozzy Osbourne, taking part in “Back To The Beginning“, and after an Ep shared with Aerosmith, Yungblud adds another significant chapter to his recent journey. The English rocker has reworked “Zombie” together with Smashing Pumpkins, duetting with Billy Corgan on a version radically different from the original.

The track, taken from “Idols“, the album released in 2025, is now presented in a darker, more abrasive reading, which Yungblud describes as “darker and more bitter”. The song is currently nominated for a Grammy in the Best Rock Song category.

The original version came with a video starring Florence Pugh, conceived as a declaration of love for nurses and a tribute to Britain's National Health Service. “Zombie” was born out of a personal experience. Yungblud has said he wrote it thinking of his grandmother, deeply changed after a serious injury: a reflection on decline, isolation, and the fear of becoming a burden to those we love.

Below is the original video for the track.

That sense of fragility running through the whole song finds a harsher, less conciliatory sonic translation in the new version. According to the artist, the influence of Smashing Pumpkins was there from the very start. The explicit reference is "Siamese Dream", an album that had pushed the songwriting toward a darker imagery than the one that eventually emerged in the released version. To avoid too close a resemblance, that element had been toned down. But the idea of reclaiming it never really went away. Hence the decision to reach out to Corgan and record a new incarnation of the song, put together quickly, just days after that first phone call.

Yungblud describes the relationship between the two versions of “Zombie” as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde dynamic: on one side light, vitality and optimism, on the other bitterness, pessimism and aggression. Two sides of the same song, meant to coexist without cancelling each other out.

In recounting his partnership with Corgan, Yungblud also points to a shared temperament: both are divisive artists, capable of provoking strong reactions, for better or worse. A condition that can breed loneliness and discouragement, especially for those just starting out, but one that for him also acts as a push to face that bitterness head-on rather than retreat. It's a theme Corgan himself had touched on publicly, speaking of a young musician with a great voice still searching for his own identity, and urging him not to put limits on his imagination. Words that Yungblud cites as decisive in the path that led to “Idols” and, now, to this new, more restless version of “Zombie”.

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