Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan has joined Cameo to raise funds for animal shelter

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has joined Cameo to help an animal shelter in his hometown.

The singer and his partner Chloe Mendel have joined the app, which allows fans to pay for personalised messages from celebrities, to raise funds for PAWS Chicago. Each message costs $250 (£188) per person or $4,500 (£3,392) for business use.

“With supply chains in disarray, Santa needed a little help this year getting special gifts to you… So he reached out to Billy + Chloé, and they came up with an idea for 100 special fans,” Corgan’s Cameo page states.

It added: “For every Cameo purchased, you will also get a mystery prize! One of the gifts may be something special courtesy of Reverend Guitars.”

Corgan has long been a supporter of PAWS, appearing with his cats on the cover of the shelter’s magazine numerous times, according to Rolling Stone.

Earlier this year, Corgan dusted off some of his pre-Smashing Pumpkins tracks during a run of intimate acoustic shows which included Madame ZuZu’s tea shop in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois.

The first half of the set consisted of songs by the musician’s early goth-rock band Marked, including opener ‘Now That I Feel This Way’, ‘First Curse’ and ‘The Dream’.

Appearing under the banner of ‘William Patrick Corgan Early Years 1985-1990’, the singer then treated those in attendance to a string of early Pumpkins material, playing ‘Pain’, ‘The Vigil’, ‘There It Goes’, ‘With You’ and more.

Back in July, Smashing Pumpkins said they were “halfway through” working on a new album, the follow-up to last year’s ‘CYR’. The as-yet-untitled new record was announced last October, and the band began recording earlier this year.