Billy Corgan Announces Smashing Pumpkins Break-Up

05/24/2000 12:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Donna Adcock

(5/24/00, 12 p.m. ET) - Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan announced Tuesday (May 23) afternoon that the band will break up following its current tour during a radio interview on KROQ Los Angeles. The announcement confirms rumors that leaked out earlier this year (LAUNCH, 1/19).

"We thought about telling people right when [the band's current album Machina/The Machines Of God] was going to come out, but then we thought it would be all about that and not about the music," Corgan explained. "But now that the album is out, it's fine. We wanted to make one more album to leave things on a positive note."

The announcement comes amid disappointing album sales for the veteran alternative rock outfit, which in recent years has been rocked by inter-band turmoil and tragedy.

Its current album, Machina/The Machines Of God, drops to Number 159 on the next Billboard 200 in its 12th week on the chart after peaking and debuting at Number Three in March. The album has sold approximately 440,000 copies since its release, according to industry sources. The disappointing sales of Machina follow the lackluster performance of Adore , the group's 1998 effort that debuted at Number Two in June 1998 and went on to be certified platinum for sales of 1 million, but failed to live up to the band's previous commercial heights.

It was in 1995 that the Pumpkins hit their commercial and artistic high-mark with Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, a sprawling two-disc set of all-new material. At that time, few rock acts had dared to release so much new material at once, since the CD had become the dominant configuration for recorded music. In 1991, for example, Guns N' Roses and Bruce Springsteen released two simultaneous single CDs, rather than risk issuing a double-disc set. The risk for the Pumpkins, however, paid off big-time, as Mellon Collie became the first two-disc set of all new material to enter the Billboard 200 at Number One in the CD era. It went on to be certified eight times platinum, for sales of 4 million copies of the two-disc set. The album also earned the Pumpkins critical raves.

Since that triumph, however, the band has gone through a series of tragedies and personal problems. On July 12 1996, touring Pumpkins keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin was found dead in a New York City hotel room after using heroin with Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Chamberlin was kicked out of the band shortly after the incident.

In February 1998, the band was sued by Virgin Records for breach of contract and non-delivery of albums. The suit was later settled out of court, but Corgan was still complaining about Virgin on the eve of the release of Machina.

In September 1999, following the return of drummer Chamberlin, the band announced that bassist D'Arcy Wretzky was leaving the band. She was replaced by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur.

Just when the Pumpkins seemed to be getting back on track, the band and manager Sharon Osbourne, wife of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, had an ugly public split on the eve of the release of Machina, seemingly sabotaging the success of the album.

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