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D’arcy Wretzky’s Smashing Pumpkins bridges burned “forever”, says Billy Corgan

By | Published on Friday 23 March 2018

Smashing Pumpkins

Billy Corgan has said that D’arcy Wretzky’s recent complaints about not being involved in the Smashing Pumpkins reunion highlight why he had to cut her out.

Ahead of the official announcement of the band’s reunion tour last month, Wretzky discussed it and her lack of involvement with music websites BlastEcho and Alternative Nation. Although Corgan had contacted her about it, she said, his communication had become flaky and he’d gradually reduced any role she might have had to a simple guest spot on a few songs, and eventually to nothing at all.

Corgan subsequently said that now was “not the time” to discuss what had gone on, but apparently now it is. A bit.

In a new interview with the New York Times, he says: “I think what she did demonstrates why she couldn’t be involved. 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”.

Fans hoping that things might yet change will be disappointed to know that Wretzky’s bridge has now been burned “forever”.

Elsewhere in the interview, Corgan notes that he’s always presented himself as a villain, second in rock n roll to Lou Reed “who’s the king”. And this worked well for him and the band in the first stage of their career, he added. Regular “controversy” kept them in the public consciousness, while they toured the world multiple times and released a string of successful albums. “So how dysfunctional were we, really?” he asks.

“To my discredit, I didn’t realise that that formula only works if you’re winning commercially”, he concedes. Once you’re not? “Well, then you’re just a jerk with a bad message”.

Still, he says, you usually see him how he wants you to see him. “I would say 80% of the things that I get held up and mocked for, I’m doing intentionally. It’s sort of funny to me that they actually think I’m that stupid. It’s, like, yeah, I work in wrestling – I’m running you”.

So maybe that whole thing about Wretzky and the burned bridges was a piece of clever manipulation. Or maybe they really do hate each other. Choose one.



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