Above is a photoshop made by a fan named Alex of what could have been had the original Smashing Pumpkins lineup reunited.
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 .”
Mike Lidstone commented, “I still can’t make heads or tails of this… she won’t say what her problem is specifically or show what Billy’s or the band’s objection to her problem is. She just keeps showing things that talk around the issue.”
D’arcy responded, “i kept saying i wanted to do it
Billy kept saying,
That’s great but you don’t understand.
Finally he admitted that he had another bass player and he only wanted me on the tour a little, tiny bit so that calling the thing a reunion of all of the original members wouldn’t be a complete lie.”
eviltimeban commented, “Sounds like Billy was really trying to make it work, was conscious she had a shoulder issue, and wanted to ease her back into the rock n roll life. Billy and the others have been touring / playing gigs in some shape or form over the last 18 years. D’arcy hasn’t. If you took someone who’d never toured before, ever, they’d have a nervous breakdown probably.
Billy seemed to be hoping to ease her back to touring, with a view to being full time eventually. She got her nose out of joint because she wasn’t in the studio, but so what? It was one song.”
D’arcy responded, “No. I asked billy if there was any chance at all to play bass for the tour. He laughed at me and said, ‘You think you can play better than Jack Bates?!’ and i said , ‘just say i did. is there ANY CHANCE that i could be the tour bassist?’ and he said ‘no.’
you need to read that again son. Also: i couldn’t get to LA. I had a torn rotator cuff.”
Barry Egan commented, “Fans have been waiting for you to be a part of the SP since you have left D’arcy, maybe that intimidates Billy or maybe he simply wants the new SP music to be his creation and not have to work around what he perceives as your issues.
Either way , it will never be a SP reunion without you there, and the fans know this, and Billy will find this out.
Much love and best wishes to you, you remain a legend.”
D’arcy responded, “that’s sweet. Thank you.
You’re very intuitive.
Billy has always perceived & treated me as a threat.”
reality commented, “You appeared to have no issue when you thought it was Jack White. Regardless, at the end of the day, it’s his band and you haven’t been on stage in two decades. Easing into things is best. Showing up in the studio would have been nice, and if your talent was still there, you would have shown that at rehearsals.
All that said, thanks for being the sole human being who calls BC out on his shit.”
D’arcy responded, “There were no rehearsals. I wanted to be involved w/the recording.
All of it, and everything else.
Billy told me NOT to come.
Who replaces me for this ‘reunion’ is irrelevant.
I just happen to be a fan of The White Stripes.
I’d never heard of Jack Bates before.
As far as not having played w/the band in a long time?
Well that’s why it’s called a reunion, isn’t it?
And if the rest of the band had any doubts about my skills or talents;
whether or not I would’ve been able to do it?
then they should have said something before they made me an offer.
I helped plan this reunion for a year and a half.
Believe me:
there were no such doubts on anyone’s part as to whether i could do it or not.
Also? i had been practicing for MONTHS and Billy knew that.
please don’t talk about ‘reality’ when you have no idea what happened.
You were not there.
Billy has over the years repeatedly publicly stated how he respects me because I walk my talk.
I’m not a liar & the whole band and everyone who’s ever worked with us and me knows it.
The same most certainly can NOT be said of Billy.
as for it being his band?
He got his way by throwing huge and frequent temper tantrums.
I was the only person who would stand up to him.
Billy didn’t even think of the name.
he stole it from his ‘best friend’ at the time.”
Jeff commented, “all i know is is saw the pumpkins in probably ’99 with D’arcy on bass at the small saint andrews hall in detroit and it was fantastic. i cant see me going to any reunion without d’arcy on bass. Like i wanna see some dude on bass with this band. I’m out..a damn shame.”
D’arcy responded, “Yes, it is a shame isn’t it?
It really is.
It’s too bad that Billy won’t see it.”
Trovoid commented, “We need you to be a part of this reunion. Unfortunately I can’t see narcissistic Billy looking past these articles. I can tell he’s just so worried about failing that he’d rather play it safe as usual. He can’t just prop some other woman (or man) up on stage and think we won’t notice the difference.. There’s only one bassist for SP and he should be giving you a chance and not be treating this like some sort of negotiation.”
D’arcy responded, “he’s incredibly insecure.
If i’m the bass player and the tour was a stellar success he couldn’t deal with it.
He already told me over the phone that he believes that the fans only care if i’m back and that they don’t really care about whether or not the other original members are there.
I told him that that was not true.
People want the original band back.
ALL of us.
Sadly, I could not convince him.”
Trey Smith commented, “Umm…Melissa Auf de Maur?”
D’arcy responded, “go see her play her own stuff.
she wrote nothing in S.P.
she played my bass lines and only for 1 tour.
Plus? i thought she and i were friends.
Guess not cause she stabbed me in the back.
(not by playing w/the Pumpkins, but the sneaky way she went about it)
i was there from the beginning for 12 years.”
Bomb Cyclone commented, “Can anyone do something they haven’t done in nearly 20 years, as well as someone who’s been doing it recently? I’m sure he’s difficult, but trying to ease you in to it all seems reasonable from outside here.”
D’arcy responded, “I’ve been playing.
Billy knows it too.
and my shoulder is fine, thanks.”
JaneSmith100 commented, “Are you better now D’arcy? 4-6 weeks for a rotator cuff injury is not really that long. Hope you’re feeling better. I think underneath it all, he DOES want to work with you. You, James & Jimmy are the original people that really KNOW him. And you guys don’t worship him as a god.
D’arcy, I hope you’re doing better, I’m still going through this injury I have (hip) & IK at our age we don’t just ‘bounce back’ sadly.
Love to you.”
D’arcy responded, “Yes, thanks. i’m much better.
4-6 weeks wouldn’t be a realistic amount of time to heal from such an injury but I injured my shoulder in September of last year.
I went to the Dr.s in January
of this year.
I also have had daily help to allow my shoulder to heal so i’m very lucky.
I hope that your injury heals
quickly and isn’t terribly painful.
If your injury is tendon or ligament related ask your dr. about hyalauronic acid.
It can be gotten in bulk on amazon very cheaply and it really does speed up the healing process for these kinds of injuries.
Take care.
D*”
Sean Ridgeley commented, “It really seems like you need to sit down and have a face to face or at least a phone call; there is so much room for misunderstanding in text and a matter like this is far too delicate to risk misunderstandings over.
We want to see you back in the band so bad; I really hope you guys find a way to make it work eventually. But of course your mental and physical health should come first, so if it’s not good for you then don’t do it.
Wishing you well.”
D’arcy responded, “We spoke on the phone for 1 & 1/2 years planning this reunion & tour. Actually the idea was not to just do a reunion tour, but to be a band again, do it right this time and have fun doing it.
Billy got cold feet.”
Sara Bea Delgado commented, “NO D´ACY NO PARTY! without her i dont wanna see this tour.”
D’arcy responded, “? Thank you. It certainly isn’t the party that Billy is trying to sell it (so very expensively!!!) as.”
Stone Gossardish commented, “He’s been Bitter Bore-Again for many years longer than he’s been the new Billy.”
D’arcy responded, “There is no new Billy.
He’s just become a quiet, liar (instead of a screaming one) and manipulates people more politely.
I found out the hard way.”
D’arcy also commented, “Do you REALLY think that Billy would read this?
Not on your life.
I’m completely aware that i’m giving them more publicity than they EVER would have had for another one of Billy’s fake pumpkin reunion tours.
This whole reunion started with me and Billy nearly 2 years ago.
He and i spoke about it for a year and a half.
I helped plan it.
Maybe you didn’t read everything?
Maybe you just need to read it more carefully.
BTW: i’ve been playing bass again since before Billy and I spoke again the 1st time and he knows it.
They all know it.
it was never a question of whether or not I could do it.
They’re trying to save their butts by using that as an excuse after the fact.”
