Billy Corgan detailed how The Smashing Pumpkins original members’ tension has affected fans over the years in a new Huffington Post interview. An original Smashing Pumpkins lineup reunion fell apart earlier this year when Billy Corgan would not offer D’arcy Wretzky a position as a full time bassist, only proposing a guest role that he compared to Steven Adler’s few guest appearances on Guns N’ Roses’ 2016 tour. Corgan did reunite with James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin for a new album and tour this year.
“Well, I almost gave up many, many times. This might sound like an odd answer but it’s really thinking a lot about my ancestors. I came from really poor people. Immigrant people. If I was to sit at a table with them, I mean, they’re long departed, and tell them, ‘Yeah, I’m just going to blow all this off because I just don’t like the way it feels.’ They would laugh at me, you know? They were a tougher breed of people than I am. And I’ve oftentimes tried to think through their eyes how they would view the opportunity. If you’re going to throw away an opportunity, fine, but at least know what opportunity you’re throwing away. And I think when I really examined the opportunity, and I realized there was still a lot of good to be done, including helping bring my band back together, and really heal a wound that really needs to be healed. Not just for us, but even for a lot of fans.
They felt very grieved by the situation. … But if they look up to you and you can’t do the thing that they’re asked to do all the time in their own lives, which is, you know, mend fences and move forward, particularly within a family, it’s very painful for them. Because on some sort of meta-level, they see you as part of their family. When you can’t put your family back together, it’s aggrieving to them. It’s like, how is this possible? You guys just can’t get in a room and just kind of get over it?
There’s a lot of dreamy stuff in there, but the point being, I just had to grow up and really appreciate, really only in America could you have this wild life that I’ve had. And live this crazy dream and also be willing to throw it away, jump up and down on it. It still survives, you know? There’s something pretty magical about that.”
