Member Reveals Why Smashing Pumpkins Was Like ‘Living In A House That’s Burning Down’

4
6034

Jimmy Chanmberlin discussed The Smashing Pumpkins in a recent Art 19 interview.

“I learned a lot from my bandmates. I learned how to have integrity from Billy [Corgan]. I learned how to value what you have ownership of, how to have respect for yourself. It’s funny, you kind of grow up to a certain point, but then when you get in a band, it becomes this socialist club for kind of malcontents, but nevertheless you learn how to re-grow up within the context of that.

I think D’arcy probably summed it up the best I’ve ever heard, when they asked her one time, ‘What was it like to be a girl in a band like the Pumpkins?’ She said, ‘It’s like being married to three guys that you would never even date.’ So you’re making all of these concessions for people that are so far beyond any concessions you would make in a normal relationship, it just makes your head spin.”

When you talk to normal people that are outside your world, and they are looking in, they’re going, ‘You guys are crazy man. What’s going on? You’re living in a house that’s burning down.'”

He also said, “The thing about me is I can always play at the highest level, no matter what was going on in my life, and I think I learned that early on as a child.”