Former Smashing Pumpkins bassist Nicole Fiorentino has confirmed to BlastEcho that she was let go by Billy Corgan, but that “the circumstances look very different from my perspective than from Billy’s.”
“I know my heart was in it 150% ‘til the end,” she wrote, “and no one can tell me differently. It was my whole life.”
Fiorentino speculates that Corgan believed her other band, The Cold and Lovely, was becoming a distraction from her role in The Pumpkins. “That was the general vibe that I inferred,” she wrote. “But the thing is, I never focused on The Cold and Lovely unless I was on break from [The Pumpkins]. It never once conflicted.”
Billy Corgan discussed Nicole Fiorentino and Mike Byrne’s Smashing Pumpkins departures in a September 2014 interview with Alternative Nation.
“With Mike and Nicole, I think it was simply a divide in what was the future of the band in terms of work and intensity. I think Jeff and I felt in order to push the band forward, it was going to take a Herculean effort. I don’t think that Mike and Nicole necessarily felt the same. Not to say that they weren’t committed, they did commit, and did a great job for what they were committed to.”
He later added, “I don’t see her coming back. But I respect the heck out of her talent. She’s one of the most talented musicians that I’ve ever worked with. I love the things that she’s contributed, and we remain in touch, and I also remain in touch with Mike. So it’s not the typical blow up, have a nice life, type stuff. We remain friends, and I do care about what happens with them in the future. It’s just the Pumpkins is a thing where at this point, there’s not a lot of room for interpretation.”
