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And Finally Artist News
Billy Corgan was “always insufferable”, says D’arcy Wretsky in new interview
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 14 February 2018
We’re still a day away from the official announcement that the Smashing Pumpkins are reuniting and it’s already drifted ever further into farce. Former bassist D’arcy Wretsky has now given her first full-on proper interview in 20 years to dispute claims made earlier this week in a statement from the band.
As her former bandmates Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlain prepare to announce new music and tour dates, Wretsky initially issued a statement via text message to the BlastEcho website. She claimed that she had been blocked from re-joining the band, going so far as to say that she’d been offered a contract by Corgan that was then retracted.
The band responded with a statement saying that they “haven’t played a show with D’arcy Wretzky for over eighteen years. But it’s not for a lack of trying”.
They went on: “Despite reports, Ms Wretzky has repeatedly been invited out to play with the group, participate in demo sessions, or at the very least, meet face-to-face, and in each and every instance she always deferred”.
This, says Wretsky, is nonsense. “[Billy] has been telling people, ‘Well [The Smashing Pumpkins] haven’t played with [D’arcy] at all in eighteen years’. Right dumbass, because then it wouldn’t be a reunion”, she tells Alternative Nation. “He says that he’s invited me to come out and play for all of these things, which is a complete lie. He’s never invited me to anything”.
She adds that after Iha appeared on stage with Corgan in 2016, and then contributed to his latest solo album ‘Ogilala’, she approached Corgan about performing together during the tour for that record.
“He did the solo album tour, and he didn’t tell me when it started”, she says. “I was texting him saying, ‘Where the fuck are you dumbass?’ He’s like, ‘Oh, I’m in New York. The tour started’. Then I’m like, ‘Where are you?’ ‘Oh, the tour ended, you missed it’. He thinks it’s a privilege for anyone to be in his presence, so therefore he shouldn’t have to tell me, and I shouldn’t have to be invited”.
When it comes to the upcoming reunion, she says that the deal she was offered was to be a guest at certain shows, rather than joining for a full tour. “That was apparently the plan all along”, she says.
As for her personal opinion of Corgan, she says: “Everyone said he changed since he had a kid, and he can be very charming, and fun. He’s fun to talk to; I enjoy mental sparring with him. I just was so out of that world for the longest time, I wasn’t aware of a lot of the crazy stuff, like he supports Trump. What? The shapeshifting thing? I honestly think he may have a brain tumour. He’s always been insufferable”.
While you may think all that might not bode well for any rekindling of their friendship, she notes that she and Corgan “were never friends”. You can read the full and fairly confusing interview here.
