Billy Corgan Sorta Explains Why D’Arcy Isn’t in Smashing Pumpkins
The personal relationships between the original members of Smashing Pumpkins have been publicly strained often enough that it's really no surprise whenever one of them elects not to work with the others.
But with a reunion on the horizon, it's only natural for fans to wonder about the lineup — specifically the absence of former bassist D'Arcy Wretzky, and exactly why she hasn't been included in the group's latest incarnation.
Wretzky herself shared the news of her exclusion from the reunion, recently extending "apologies to all of the Smashing Pumpkins fans out there who are excited about this oncoming reunion" and admitting, "I know this is a huge disappointment for me, as well, but it’s not going to happen [with me]. I only just found ... that the band has decided to go with a different bass player."
That was more or less confirmed by the recent leak of some new photos of the band, which would now seem to include frontman Billy Corgan alongside guitarist Jeff Iha, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and guitarist Jeff Schroeder, the latter of whom was rumored to be stepping into the bassist slot in Wretzky's absence. But that looks like it isn't the case after all, at least according to an Instagram post from Corgan that obliquely addresses the current lineup while somewhat passive-aggressively downplaying Wretzky's musical contributions to Pumpkins past.
Responding to rumors that he himself would be playing bass by saying he's "not sure I can play bass AND sing at the same time," Corgan added, "though Jeff doesn’t mind plucking at 4 strings if needed I know he would much prefer the dulcet tones of 6 (but I have heard him confess that 7 strings is just ‘too much’)." As for Iha, Corgan wrote that he hadn't "seen him pick up a bass" since the sessions for 2000's Machina/The Machines of God LP — an album that, as Pumpkins fans will recall, included Wretzky in the lineup.
Corgan went on to say that Iha "played a fair share" of the bass on Machina, "despite reports claiming a certain ‘flaxen Saxxon’ did; and as you know with much that is written is patently f-a-l-s-e."
That matter seemingly settled, Corgan urged fans to live in the moment before making an allusion to one of the band's biggest hits. "Wisdom here dictates that I share something I have said many times as of late, which is: Be here now, live in the present. There truly is no past (but that which lives in your mind), and the future too is but a dream. So kindly, truly, embrace the life you are living TODAY," he concluded. "Which reminds me of a song that I also played bass on."