Billy Corgan took a conciliatory tone while reflecting on former Smashing Pumpkins bassist D’arcy Wretzky’s contributions to the band in a new video.
In the clip posted to Substack, Corgan admitted that he doesn’t often “speak on D’arcy’s contribution, because obviously what went down a few years ago didn’t leave either one of us in the best light,” referring to the feud stemming from the band’s 2018 reunion, which ultimately didn’t include Wretzky. In the public spat, Wretzky accused Corgan of misleading her about her involvement in the reunion, and other disparaging remarks were exchanged.
In the Substack video — a reflection on the 30th anniversary of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, which Wretzky played on — Corgan chose to focus more on the positive aspects of the bassist’s contributions to the band prior to her exit in 1999.
“I’ve said it before, and I have no problem saying it again,” he said (as transcribed by Ultimate Guitar), “D’arcy had a way of kind of letting it be known – stuff that she thought was moving the band forward, or moving the band laterally, or moving the band backwards. And probably, of the four of us, her opinion about those types of things carried more weight.”
He continued: “So her contribution, kind of spiritually, emotionally, I think, had a lot to do with the success of the band. So again, I would never take that away from her, because I really did respect her musical opinion. We managed to disagree about everything else, but in music, when we would align, it was powerful. And I think that’s what makes a great band, when the four contributing factors of a band can come together.”
Corgan went on to recall the undeniable chemistry behind the lineup that wrote and recorded those classic Smashing Pumpkins albums.
“And at least for that lineup, the OG lineup, the three records we made, I mean, two of the three records turned out to be very important,” he said. “So that’s something I always hold. It’s a shame there wasn’t more of it, and we certainly did try again in ’99. I guess in a musician’s life, nothing is truly linear. … I look at those years between ’92 and ’96, ’97, you know, it was the alignment of the four people that really made for the music having that little bit of extra edge, that little bit extra clarification, or even if you want to call it a collective voice.”
Wretzky exited the Smashing Pumpkins prior to the release of 2000’s Machina/The Machines of God, though she is credited with bass on the album. Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur briefly joined the Pumpkins prior to the band’s six-year disbandment that began in December 2000.
In the years since her exit from the Smashing Pumpkins, Wretzky has lived a reclusive life away from the public eye.
