It’s official: D’Arcy Wretzky will never be part of the Smashing Pumpkins again

There’s been much controversy over the exclusion of D’Arcy Wretzky from the Smashing Pumpkins reunion, much of it fueled by D’Arcy herself through interviews and comments on related stories.

She says that Billy Corgan promised her a role in the reunion but then went back on his word. The Pumpkins’ people stated that D’Arcy was repeated invited but “always deferred.” D’Arcy then said that statement was full of shit and that maybe Billy “may have a brain tumor.” Then came the unnecessarily-leaked photo of D’Arcy following an assault which sought to prove…well, we’re not sure what. But it was a low blow.

Billy hasn’t had much to say about the situation himself–until now. A new profile in the New York Times has this:

Ms. Wretzky said by phone that she had been discussing a potential Pumpkins comeback with Mr. Corgan for nearly two years, but felt in retrospect that he had never truly considered her to be the band’s full-time bass player.

“He was stringing me along and using me to be able to say that it was, in fact, a reunion of all the members,” she said. “Billy can be incredibly charming and funny and fun, but when it comes to money and giving credit where credit is due and any kind of work situation, it’s not pretty.”

She added that while she was initially told she would make “millions of dollars,” there were disagreements about how the members would split the payday, with Mr. Corgan making twice as much as the others. “I really wanted to do this tour for the right reasons,” Ms. Wretzky said. “If everybody was doing it for free, I would have done it for free.”

Mr. Corgan pointed out that he had not even seen Ms. Wretzky in 19 years and he called the exposure of their correspondence “horrifying,” though he declined to get into the specifics of her accusations.

“I think what she did demonstrates why she couldn’t be involved,” Mr. Corgan said. “I was vulnerable and shared things and trusted that there was a reason to give it a chance, despite plenty of empirical evidence that that was not a wise decision.” That bridge is now burned “forever,” he added. (Jack Bates will play bass on the tour; Jeff Schroeder will serve as a third guitarist.)

So that’s settled. Time to move on. Read the whole Times profile–which includes details about who the reunion came together–here.