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If you’re still pissed at how this Smashing Pumpkins reunion is playing out, this will just make it worse

While Smashing Pumpkins fans welcome this almost-reunion of the original lineup, the exclusion of bass player D’Arcy Wretzky still rankles. It ain’t the original Pumpkins of all the original players ain’t there.

This report from Alternative Nation isn’t going to make you feel any better about things.

On Saturday, original Smashing Pumpkins bassist D’arcy Wretzky left comments on Alternative Nation’s article from last month where she shared her text message conversations with Billy Corgan.

“he never asked me how i wanted to be involved .

You really should read all of the texts over again very carefully.

you will see that I said
I want to be involved in everything.

all of it.

and he told me not to come to the studio. He told me on the phone that he’d already gotten a different bass player and i had no matter what happened, i had no opportunity to be the bass player on the tour.”

D’arcy also responded to many fans, thanking them for their support and also responding to comments from others. She even gave advice to one fan on how to recover from an injury.

timmy hendero commented, “unless i read that wrong looks like Billy is trying to accommodate?”

D’arcy responded, “yes. you read it wrong-

and apparently you did not read the whole thing

Billy comes right out and says that ‘he James,Jimmy, and Jeff’
need to do everything perfectly or the band will never make it out of the country .”

Fans will need to read the rest. D’Arcy addresses a lot more.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39807 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

10 thoughts on “If you’re still pissed at how this Smashing Pumpkins reunion is playing out, this will just make it worse

  • Alan, D’arcy is not ready to play. Can you please at least be responsible? It might make your ‘journalism’ a little better. Smashing Pumpkins fans are ‘pissed’ that you’re writing articles like this. It’s just more subjective crap.

    Reply
    • Er, how is she not ready to play? She says she is. Did you read the whole article? And I stand by my opinion: it’s not a proper classic reunion without her.

      Reply
      • agreed. No D’arcy? No thanks.

        Reply
      • Since when you determine what is a proper classic reunion? You stand by your opinion and dare to write this pseudoarticle and speak on behalf of fans. Because it is based on your opinion it totally excludes it from being journalism. This is simply a rant in disguise. Regarding Alternative Nation, they are proving they are in desperate need to sell the soap opera they have maliciously created.Careless about the music at all and absolutely determined to get attention with their reality style. No credit whatsoever, it is crap.

        Reply
      • Of course Billy doesn’t want to risk millions of dollars on a crack head who is a mediocre bass player and not a key figure of the original band. Your’e click bait titles are not “journalism”, but nice face pic.

        Reply
  • Unfortunately, Harry is right. Just because D’arcy says that she is ready, that doesn’t necessarily mean that she is. She has to know that there is a world of difference between playing in your barn, or your living room, and playing in front of thousands of people every night. She hasn’t been on stage in nearly twenty (!) years, whereas the other members have been involved in a myriad of different music projects, toured like crazy, etc. I want this to be a reunion proper, yes, but I wouldn’t want them to bring D’arcy back into the fold for the sake of legitimacy. As big of a jerk as Billy is, I’m sure that he thought about all of this before making the decision (though I will agree that he sort of did it in a crappy, underhanded way).

    Reply
  • Given the source of the article is the otherwise super click-bait-y Alternative Nation, I’ll take this with a grain of salt. Would an all 4 original members reunion be awesome, sure. But sometimes egos and he says/she says gets in the way. Will we ever know exactly what happened? Likely not. I would have taken a reunion with Melissa Auf der Maur, but she’s moved on to her own thing. Had the Pumpkins played anywhere near me, I might’ve gone – regardless of who’s playing in the band these days.

    Reply
  • I thought Billy Corgan basically did everything in the band anyway. Therefore any bass player can fill the role.

    Reply
    • that must be why all his musical endevors have been just as successful as SP

      Reply
    • On the later SP albums Billy was rumoured to take over and re-record various parts, which I believe was one of the factors that led to the original breakup in 2000. Hard to go from being a contributing member in the recording process to essentially a touring member of a 1-man band. But I could be wrong.

      Reply

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