Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan couldn’t help singing the praises of his longtime friend and Foo Fighters leader, Dave Grohl.

In a new interview with Detroit’s WRIF, Corgan explained, “Well, if you look at Gen X, Dave Grohl has really won the race, which says a lot about Nirvana. Because not only did you have Kurt (Cobain) in the band, you had Dave, who, of course, contributed to so many great songs, but then went on to make so many great songs of his own. I think Dave continues to perform at a very high level, obviously, there’s been tragedy of late and (I’m) certainly sympathetic because Taylor (Hawkins) was a wonderful person.

In regard to his own personal competitive spirit, Corgan admitted that it’s diminished with age: “I tend not to think about it that way anymore, because I really think your greatest competition is yourself. At this point, I have a wonderful life; I’ve been very, very blessed, and blessed with a beautiful family. Music, for me, at this point, is a choice. I don’t have to do music, and I’m not saying that as a snob. I’m saying that I really, really want to do music. . . So, I think my greatest competitor at this point is just myself, and my own my own wacky brain.”

Like his friend Billy Corgan, Dave Grohl has always felt the need to surround himself with music. He told us a while back that he once worked at the legendary and now-defunct record chain Tower Records: “I worked at Tower Records when I was 18, 19, something like that, in Washington D.C. It was pretty fun. I always looked at Tower as the place you could get a job if you had a really funky haircut. Maybe you could get a job at the construction warehouse, but you’d kind of rather be surrounded by music.”

Foo Fighters are set to perform on June 14th in Rogers, Arkansas at the Walmart Amphitheatre.

Smashing Pumpkins will next play on July 29th and 30th in Las Vegas at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan.