Smashing Pumpkins: Billy Corgan, One Man Band
According to E! News, Billy Corgan is the last Pumpkin standing, and although this was printed today, it seems like incredibly old news. Hasn’t he tried to make about thirty comebacks already?
In any case, Billy Corgan is now a one man band; the artists formerly known as the Smashing Pumpkins have all deserted the singer. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, the second-to-last member, has left the band, according to a clip Corgan posted on the band’s official website this past Sunday.
So that makes Billy Corgan the next Axl Rose, so perhaps we should expect the frontman (or the only man) to get started on a ten year project that is sure to disappoint. (The message on the website hastened to add: “Corgan will continue to write and record as Smashing Pumpkins with plans to head into the studio this spring.”)
Chamberlain had been a part of the band since 1988 and had been featured on all Smashing Pumpkin albums except for Adore. He’d been kicked out of the band in 1996, when he overdosed on heroin, but rejoined after doing some time in rehab.
Corgan has long been famous for being a control-freak, and when the frontman wanted to get the band back together in 2005 the only original member he could persuade was Chamberlain.
Good luck being Axl, Billy (or you could, you know, just bow out semi-gracefully…).
Axl has also been famous for being a control-freak, and pretty much why he’s the only original band member as well. The similarities are astounding.