Ex-Smashing Pumpkins bassist D’arcy Wretzky slams ‘insufferable’ Billy Corgan
She launches a stinging attack on Billy
Last updated 15th Feb 2018
Former Smashing Pumpkins bassist D’arcy Wretzky has launched a stinging tirade against Billy Corgan.
The band are widely expected to announce their classic line-up reformation at 5pm tomorrow (15th February), however, it will be without D’arcy Wretzky.
In January, D’arcy told BlastEcho she won’t be a part of the reunion as “the band has decided to go with a different bass player.”
This caused The Smashing Pumpkins to make an official statement this week saying “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.”
Now, in an extremely outspoken interview with Alternative Nation, D’arcy has pulled absolutely no punches in a heated dressing-down of Billy Corgan.
Beginning by addressing The Smashing Pumpkins statement about reaching out, Wretzky said: “(Billy) has been telling people, ‘Well (The Smashing Pumpkins) haven’t played with D’arcy at all in 18 years.’ Right dumbass, because then it wouldn’t be a reunion!
“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. In fact, my feelings were a little bit hurt because he did the solo album tour, and he didn’t tell me when it started.
“I was texting him saying, ‘Where the f--- 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.”
D’arcy also opened up about her fraught working relationship with the singer over the decades, saying: “Billy loved to humiliate people and shame people in front of other people. It was incredibly abusive, and I was the only one who would fight back.
“I think he and Jimmy (Chamberlain) got in a couple fights, and he and James (Iha) maybe five, but with he and I it was screaming matches all the time. I just got to the point where I couldn’t fight anymore, and I needed to leave.”
Although they started talking again in 2016, D’arcy says that “he’s just the same.”
“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,” she added.
“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.”
In a now-deleted Facebook post, D’arcy has also shared a series of alleged text messages from Billy that apparently show he reassured her she’d be involved in the reunion, only to later rescind the offer.
The saga continues…