James Iha about Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins 

It's so sad tho :(

+DF E Why because he doesn't want to talk about? I love Corgan music, but he can be very harsh to deal with.

+Jimi Jones How long before he becomes a full-fledged madonna?

Exactly. Much respect to Mr. James Iha

you sound like an idiot

And the only reason the journalist was interested was to get a reaction. Like James said, people come into and out of your life all the time and that's okay. When I was going to SP concerts in the 90's I thought James was helping write the music but now that I know how it went in the studio who cares?

Josh Taylor Couldn't have said it better myself!

The guy put up with being in a band with Billy and his exgirlfriend for many years haha he is strong:)

Samuel Woodson We're pissed because he left in the middle of the final Metro show in 2000 without saying a word to Billy or the other bandmates. It's just straight up disrespectful and it's really immature of him to not even apologize for doing that.

Mellon Collie No way? did he really leave during half show is theis really true doesnt he play throughout the whole gig and then leave wthout aying goodbye after?wich is also fucked up.

Idk what some people expect. Its like he quit a job and got another and everyone keeps asking why he doesnt want to go back and work for McDonald's. Why arent you friends with everyone at your old job from 20 years ago? For most musicians it goes..... You answer a flyer. Join a band. Band gets big because of one song. So now you tour around the world with people you met a year ago.

@@theendistheend123 it’s not the same as just getting a different job. Music is very personal, McDonald’s is not. I get why he was tired of being asked but when you were in one of the biggest bands ever it’s going to happen. I’m just glad he’s back now. I’m sure Billy can be insufferable lot of the time and James seems pretty laid back and down to Earth. But differences in personality often makes for great music.

If I was him would just be like dude. I'm in a perfect circle now. 2 awesome bands. Billy Corgan can't make 1 band cool by himself

saw them 3 nights ago and agree 100%

Just saw them in Charlotte agree 100 percent

Yeah I just saw them last week. They played Tonight, Tonight together acoustic. Glad they caught back up with each other, they perform very well together still.

NJ?

Did you tell them I said Hi?

Thing is Corgan has always viewed Smashing Pumpkins as his intellectual property. Band members and style irrelevant. If he was present in a band it would be called Smashing Pumpkins, End of story. Kind of an egotistical psycho, but an effective one so I'm ok with it.

And he's lost his damn mind in 10 years!

that's retarded, because most bands don't keep their original members in tact throughout their career

Viktor VonDoom lol

Shmaynoria same when guns n roses ( or just axl rather ) pulled the same stunt

lol what?

Corgan seems like a lot to deal with...

And this is me saying that, being a writer. I believe in confidence and swagger, and artistic vision, but other artists do have great ideas often times. James does. SP isn't the same without Iha.

Corgan would have been incredibly challenging to work with. Brilliant, but difficult. Usually that's how it goes.

***** You obviously hear what you want to hear.

+Mike Greg It's just a play on words and it really sounded like he said "wife". I'm asian and i wasn't offended and found it funny. Why do you think it's a joke on the asian american accent when the guy doesn't even have one like you pointed out?

hilarious but mean thumbs up or down can't decide lol

Neb Uluos A thumbs up would mean I temporarily win the popularity contest between Mike Greg and me. (Do it for the keks.)

Sometimes the quality if the humor outweighs it's potential to offend and posterity must have its way..

they were a great musical writing pair lmao

Hopefully it will last. Peoples core character traits don't really change much.

Important?

@@chrisb3976 yeah, I grew up listening to the pumpkins. that means something.

To some , those songs speak to them. Do they still mean the same thing? But to be around when the flower bloomed is something else

It's a job. Get over it. Next thing you will be chasing the first girl to give you a chubby on FB.

@@RogueBoyScout ok DAN.

GabzitoHD eeeeeww. As long as I don’t see it I’m okay with it

Why'd you have to point this out, I heard it right the first time and now I realize it because you of you fuck.

he was talking about the interviewer's wife, right? right? .... right?

better out than in......

he legit said it...

That's the point of the interview. That's literally like interviewing Obama and him being like "well, I don't want to talk about the presidency or anything like that... that's in the past... I want to talk about my new science fiction book..." WHo gives a shit? He's being interviewed BECAUSE he was a member of the Smashing Pumpkins... that's it.

they( the fans) are the reason why Smashing Pumpkins reach the pinnacle of their fame

@@jeanpaulcarag8056 So what? If the Smashing Pumpkins didn’t work their lives off making great music, there’d be no fans. The demand for great music will always exceed the supply. Thus those who bring greatness to the table have THE final say; not the fans, as it *should* be. Fandom entitlement is on another level.

He plays with the Pumpkins again now though.

Wrong.

Most of the time it’s for the better!

@@travisdozier1357 no way. My gf recently split up with me. 😭

@@TraumaER I’m sorry to hear that. But you will move on to some measure or another. It’s inevitable . Good luck.

@@travisdozier1357 🤗

AMEN

A young Pepe if you will

Desert Storm ChefNice lmao

Desert Storm ChefNice loll

Lmao!

You mean look like Yoda?

I doubt any of them give a F

they're not back. D'arcy completes the band.

Long Life to Smashing Pumpkins!!!

Anthony Langford Well said :)

froggy9191 :)

Exactly. BC is known for sometimes saying too much in interviews, but he's also better with that in the last couple of years. I guess it's a maturity thing and a mental health thing. I know when I was not feeling well, I screwed up a lot of relationships, but it's different now. Anyway, for James that was a closed chapter of his life, but then he and BC talked again after more than ten years, and regardless of James and Jimmy back in the band, it's just so nice to know that people have mended their relationships.

Oh yeah, compared to world hunger, trafficking, drugs...these are overpaid jaded rock stars...who gives a stuff..

I think they all have tbh, James probably feels it's best to let sleeping dogs lie.

oh I don't know .. I think it's more Billy Corgan just doesn't have the music in him any more. nobody is claiming that the albums kept being great, and that they deserved attention. they aren't that good after mellon collie and especially within a couple years later ..

well now it's just no D'arcy

Billy's newest album is better than anything the Pumpkins ever released.

Yes. There was animosity between them because Billy felt like Iha didn’t pull his weight on the Siamese Dream album.

@@matthewjames1707 Bruh, this comment was 7 years ago. The animosity comes from the fact that the group was composed of Billy and Jimmy and the other two were just along for the ride and had little to no influence on the direction of the band. They were dead weight, and when Jimmy was gone, Billy couldn't drag them to success.

Drown is my personal favorite.Its like the perfect SP song..

@@joshuamitcham1519 When it comes to the Smashing Pumpkins don't forget ''Muzzle.'' Could be their most underrated song.

@@MegaMkmiller love muzzle

@@joshuamitcham1519 the only good one

@@CrimeSchool138 SP made dozens of really good songs just in 3 records. You can say that you didn't like them, but to say they made one good song is goofy. Soma, Mayonaise, Cherub rock, Geek Usa, Rhinoceros, Siva, Bury me, Tonight Tonight, Jellybelly, Zero, Bullet with Butterfly wings, Muzzle, 1979 and many more. They combined hard rock with soft dreamy psychedlic music and their songs were full of cathcy riffs, emotional solos and amazing drumming.

+Musashi-san ____ Not when you were in the biggest rock and roll band of the 90's with millions of fans and millions of sold records and concerts.

+schotanusser Money, and other people don't affect all people the same emotionally.

schotanusser the true biggest rock band of the nineties was lead by a bigger genius writing their songs, and it wasnt a band with Corgan in it.

+schotanusser Music is a business, regardless of how poetic it is, it is still a business. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were business partners, sure they happened to be friends before that, but it took it's toll and they broke off.

The difficulty of a composition is irrelevant to the masses. Cobain had a way with words, attitude, and chord progression that people couldn't ignore despite his lack of technicality. I certainly agree Corgan was a master of songwriting in the 90s, however.

Often true.

Not often but always, this is the default for everyone, then there are exceptions.

This comment aged extremely well.

You have reason I agree

Spot on...I dont know james' heritage but always felt there was a subtle japanese note to some of the pumpkin songs such as mayo

They dont make shitty music now

If you think "Monuments To An Elegy" is a good album, then I've nothing to say to you..

Jon if you think its bad then your a deluded fool

From a different point of view, current Pumpkins is still awesome. Corgan's still there to pulse forth his cathartic sound with that same burgeoning depth, only continuing as the band changes. It hasn't exactly ripened, but, merely... Adapted. It isn't a monster now; it never was. The band is just changing. Some people are okay with it, some people even like it. Personally, I love how Corgan isn't attempting to re-hash old Pumpkin glory days and is, in fact, pretty damn motivated in progressing forward in his life and music scene. Granted, my favorite album is Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, with Siamese Dream as a close second... and, well, I too am kind of downcast that they aren't rocking Brittle Gothic Symphonic Arena Alternative Rock anymore, BUT, my third (so far; I haven't listened to all of the tracks on Monuments to an Elegy yet) is Oceania. Oceania, with masterful tracks like the namesake of the album itself, Pale Horse, My Love is Winter, The Chimera, and Panopticon, No, it isn't my favorite. Yes, it is almost literally swimming in atmospheric techno wade. And yes, I really like it. And...if you haven't listened to the entire album yet, I highly recommend Tiberius if you're searching for something soaked in satisfying, crunchy, and outstretching sound, or Drum+Fife if you're into softer, but more emotionally striking songs (like Set the Ray to Jerry). I just wouldn't count them out yet. Besides, I can name a few choice cuts from each album since Mellon Collie: with Ava Adore, Perfect, Tear, and Crestfallen coming to mind on Adore, Glass and the Ghost Children, Raindrops+Sunshowers, The Sacred and Profane, Heavy Metal Machine, The Crying Tree of Mercury, and With Every Light on Machina I/The Machines of God, Tarantula, Zeitgeist, and especially Pomp and Circumstances on Zeitgeist, and the aforementioned content stated for Oceania and Monuments to an Elegy. Granted, I haven't even listened to Machina II yet, and I think I'll check it out. Anyways, I hope you check some of these out if you haven't, and if you have and still don't like them, that's totally fine. Gish, Siamese Dream, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness are AMAZING.

Jon It's better than the majority of albums that are coming out right now. I bought it, & listened to it for a week. There's probably 3-4 songs that I personally really like. Some of it I had to get used to, but I hated Nirvana's In Utero at 1st, but it somehow grew on me. Besides, no 1 buys albums anymore. Well, aside from genuine music fans, & musicians like myself. Granted musicians are obviously genuine music fans. Most people go on i-Tunes, they buy the 3 best songs, & could care less about the album as a whole. Some of them just download it for free somewhere. The music business is in a sad state of affairs, especially in the United States. Most of my favorite new artists/bands are from the U.K., or some other part of the world. As for S.P. I kind of give Corgan a pass, because every S.P. album, aside from Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness, was Corgan, & Chamberlain, in the recording studio. It's not like Ax'l Rose, .& the new new G'nR. I'm not going to listen to some other guy play Slash's guitar riffs. As for APC, they've all but disappeared. They also went through different musicians, & this happened after their 1st album. Then other bald Billy (Howedell), who was Billy Corgan's former guitar tech, came out w/ Ashes Divide, which wasn't bad, but that was it. After hearing that album, it was clear that he composed Maynard's vocal melodies. Paz went to Zwan w/ Corgan, & Chamberlain. Then Chamberlain went The J.C. Complex, a good band if you're a musician, & appreciate Fusion mixed with metal + alt. rock. Again not a bad album IMO. From 2001-2008, everyone was being a band slut.

***** it happens....

So thats why darcy left the band.....

they have reunited, james rejoined smashing pumpkins and they’ve been touring

They all did reunite minus Darcy years before you wrote this comment lol

Billy and Jimmy reunited, with Jimmy as a touring member from 2015-2018, and James and Jimmy became full time members again in 2018. In 2016, Billy and Jimmy invited James on stage for a couple songs. That paved the way for the full reformation in 2018. Billy, Jimmy, and James are The Pumpkins.

no way

@@cookie4049 yeah huh

Lol

In iconic bands the whole is always greater than the sum. Chemistry = magic. For the Pumpkins it leaned towards dark magic.

He’s back in the pumpkins now tho

@@vincenzoantonelli9772 Glad they've resoled their diffferences.

I know, right?!

listen to his solo stuff very beautiful.

james has as much to do songwriting-wise in apc as he did in tsp..... F*CK ALL!!

im not a "tool fanboy" though... typical corgan fanboy,reaching for am argument outside of music.way to go guy

Billy should not even be mentioned in the same sentence as that douche, fuck that!!

Yes you did lol.

TBF, 'that' isn’t exactly hard to spell. I’d be more worried about 'reconcile'...