With Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots’ original lineups being forever silenced with the deaths of Chris Cornell and Scott Weiland, 90’s alternative rock fans have been anxiously anticipating a reunion of the original Smashing Pumpkins lineup.
Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin hinted at the band’s original lineup reuniting for a 2018 tour in a new WGN Radio interview.
“We were talking about playing next year with the band and somebody asked me, you know, ‘what’s it like to coordinate that?’ I said ‘it’s like Grumpy Old Men 3, only there’s three grumpy old men and one’s a woman.’ That’s how it has gotten to be.”
Chamberlin rejoined the Pumpkins in 2015, while James Iha was a guest performer on the band’s spring 2016 tour. In Facebook live videos last year, Billy Corgan said the original lineup were first beginning discussions to possibly reunite, as he had just reconnected with bassist D’arcy Wretzky for the first time in years. The original Smashing Pumpkins lineup last played together on April 24, 1999 in Los Angeles, CA.
He also seemed open to a reunion album. Chamberlin last recorded with the Pumpkins on 2007’s Zeitgeist, while the full original lineup’s last album together was 2000’s MACHINA.
“Do I potentially record some more music? Hell yeah, it’s super fun. When Billy and I get together, amazing things happen.”
He also discussed the challenges he faced during the Smashing Pumpkins’ hey day in the 90’s.
“It’s a transformative time. …. So when I look at that stuff, I say, yeah, it was awful. My father died, I went into a tailspin, I didn’t know any other way to deal with it, there was no one to talk to, my bandmates and I didn’t have that type of relationship, management was not interested in anything that didn’t make money.
The more excess you create, the more record you sell, the more magazine covers you get on, you become more of a celebrity by being more of a jackass, and all of that stuff just adds up to this cauldron of your responsibility.”
He later discussed his trademark drum sound, “The role of the swing drummer is really to be a part of the narrative…and that’s something I keep with me today….when you listen to a Pumpkins drum part, you should be able to identify that song; it should be as identifiable as the verse or the chorus.”
