Billy Corgan claimed David Bowie's spirit was with him when he was recording his latest solo album

He said: "When I was writing the song, the opening chord sequence reminded me of, like, the kind of chords David [would use] ... he'd do a lot of weird inversions.

"He was just in the air and so he kind of rode shotgun with me when I was writing this song."

And that isn't the only supernatural experience the Smashing Pumpkins singer - who is now recording under his full name, William Patrick Corgan - experienced recently.

The 'Tonight, Tonight' hitmaker recalled how he was writing in one room in his house, while his girlfriend, Chloe Mendel, was cooking in the kitchen.

He said: "I hit some weird key and the thing blanked and I lost eight day's worth of work."

At the exact same time, Chloe saw a vision of a woman in the kitchen which looked like Billy's mother when she was 25, and the two ran to find one another to share what had happened to them.

Billy - who was unable to retrieve his work - said: "It was like this weird ripple in time thing."

And the 'Bullet With Butterfly Wings' singer also claimed he once encountered a shapeshifter, though he refused to be drawn on the details.

Speaking to Sirius XM DJ Howard Stern, he said: "Let's just say I was with somebody once and I saw a transformation that I can't explain... I saw it. I was totally sober...

"Imagine you're doing something, you turn around and suddenly there's somebody else standing there. [A different human?] Sort of. It's hard to explain without going to detail, I'd rather not going into detail.

"They acknowledged it [but] they wouldn't explain.

It's a really messed up story. No [not a famous person]. I'm being vague on purpose.

"It's up there with one of the most intense things I've ever been through."