Listen to New Smashing Pumpkins Song Featuring Tommy Lee, ‘One and All’
Earlier this year, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan announced that Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee would be joining the band on its next album. And as the release date for 'Monuments to an Elegy' approaches, some of the songs featuring Lee are coming out.
You can listen to 'One and All,' which sounds like vintage Pumpkins with a bit of age on it, above. The album is due on Dec. 9.
Back when the news was announced that Lee would be joining Corgan's revolving Pumpkins on their eighth album, both musicians were pumped about the prospect of working together. “That guy is so smart and so talented, I’ve got nothing but massive respect for him and adoration," Corgan said at the time. "It was really, really cool," Lee added.
Lee replaced drummer Mike Byrne around the same time. In a new post on the Pumpkins' website, Corgan says that Byrne, who's in his early 20s, "has taught me a lot about his generation. And watching the twitch up close, the ADD of it all, I’m starting to understand what he found boring about The Mighty SP. He wasn’t wrong. But he also wasn’t right, too."
Corgan has pointed out that bringing Lee into the group was a perfect fit. "The songs, in demo form, had a strut, and so the suggestion was made that we ought to get someone who 'plays like' Tommy," he said. "[Guitarist] Jeff Schroeder ... said, 'Why not get the real deal?' Tommy brings the power and grace he's known for, which gives the music a vibrancy that is both immediate and unmistakable."
Once the album is out, who knows where Corgan will take his band. A couple months ago, he contemplated pulling the plug. But we've heard this before from him. So there's probably a good chance the Smashing Pumpkins will be on the road sometime in 2015. And with Lee soon to have plenty of time on his hands, he may already have a drummer.