Billy Corgan Announces Zwan Reunion Tour Plans

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Smashing Pumpkins members Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin are discussing plans for a Zwan reunion tour. The reunion though will be similar to the 2007 Zeitgeist tour, with what appears to be new members replacing David Pajo, Matt Sweeney, and Paz Lenchantin. Zwan were together from 2001 to 2003, releasing their lone album Mary Star of the Sea in 2003 before splitting up. Corgan discussed the tour plans in a recent Instagram story Q&A’s.

Zwan is just as powerful as your other projects. Is a reissue set in stone?

“Yes, discussing a reissue and a tour with JC and I and some friends.”

Any chance of reunion shows when the Zwan reissue is done?

“Maybe before with Jimmy and I and whoever we’d choose.”

On April 24, 2005 in the Chicago Tribune, Corgan commented on the breakup of the band: “The music wasn’t the big problem, it was more their attitude… Sex acts between band members in public. People carrying drugs across borders. Pajo sleeping with the producer’s girlfriend while we were making the record.”

In the May 27, 2005 edition of Entertainment Weekly, Corgan said, “Sex and drugs and junk. Tick off the list: heroin, band members having relationships…You don’t trust the person next to you. I’m on the bus. I send an email to somebody and I throw my BlackBerry in my little day bag. The next day, my ex-girlfriend calls me screaming. Somebody in the group went into my BlackBerry and forwarded her an e-mail that another girl sends me. I mean, that’s the kind of stuff we were dealing with.

In the same Entertainment Weekly article, Corgan disclosed that things went wrong at some of the very first recording sessions. “…it was like, ‘What do you mean the guitar’s out of tune? What do you mean I have to be there at 11? What do you mean I can’t order $100 of lobster every day?’ I mean, like, bad. But it was too late. It was already public. The album was going out. So I did what I always did: try to make the best of a situation and start covering up. Put on a good face. And honestly, I’m glad the thing didn’t sell, because if it had sold well it would have been really tough. I would look like I was going to walk away from something that I’d just built.”

He also stated that he can no longer listen to Mary Star of the Sea, because to him it sounds like “thousands of lies upon lies upon lies. It’s a shame because there’s tons of music unreleased that will just sit in a box until I can stomach it.” When asked which of his two former bands would ever reform, he said, “Pumpkins. You’ll never see Zwan. I’ll never go anywhere near those people. Ever. I mean, I detest them. You can put that in capital letters. Bad people. James and D’arcy are good people. They might be misguided people, but they’re good people.”

Last year David Pajo attacked Billy Corgan, comparing him to President Donald Trump.

“When the campaign was happening, I was like, ‘Wow, Trump is so much like Corgan,” Pajo explained in an episode of the Kreative Kontrol podcast. “I’m sure Billy loves this guy. I know he’s a Trump supporter. He has to be.”

Pajo added, “He’s got millions of dollars. He’s got that ego. He loves the ‘bully mentality.’ I don’t keep up with him, and I don’t wanna talk bad about him. But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he was a Trump supporter. In fact, I’d be more surprised if he wasn’t.” Ouch. If such a condemnation doesn’t ruin a career, I don’t know what will.

“[Corgan] can very convincingly front that he’s a sensitive liberal person, but maybe now that Trump’s made it OK to not act like that, for people like him, he’s gonna start shouting that.”