D’Arcy Wretzky Says Billy Corgan Rescinded Her Invitation To Play In Smashing Pumpkins Reunion
Original Smashing Pumpkins bassist D’Arcy Wretzky will evidently not be playing in the band’s newly reformed lineup, as she revealed in an interview with the website BlastEcho last month. Now, Wretzky has given another interview to the same site, with further details about the reunited band. In it, she claims that Corgan initially made a contract offer to her and original guitarist and drummer James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin, but later rescinded the offer.
Expanding on a previous statement D’arcy made to BlastEcho, D’arcy said that Corgan initially made a contract offer to her, Iha and Chamberlin, which was agreed upon by all parties. However, a month later D’arcy says Billy told her “well, that wasn’t a real offer.” It’s unclear whether or not the initial offer remains for Iha and Chamberlin, although D’arcy is under the impression it is.
An explanation as to why the offer was rescinded, too, remains unclear. Cryptically, she said she has an inkling but “that is a whole other can of worms and a big, ugly one! Another time.”
Over the weekend, the Smashing Pumpkins official website was updated with a countdown clock that will end this Wednesday, prompting fans to wonder whether the band will be announcing a new album and/or tour. Corgan has been providing a steady stream of updates on Instagram, where he posted a photo of himself with Iha and Chamberlin (and not Wretzky) in a recording studio last month. More recently, he posted that the band has “26 tracks in various stages of completion.”
It’s unclear who will fill in for Wretzky on bass. Corgan addressed but did not explicitly confirm rumors of her absence from this version of the band in yet another Instagram post, referring to her as “a certain ‘flaxen Saxxon’” and downplaying her involvement in past Pumpkins releases. Wretzky previously called her exclusion from the reunion “a huge disappointment.”
This article originally appeared on Spin.