Expert: Jason Musgrove - 12/6/2004

Question
This isnt really a question butit seems wierd that if you look on the web for pix of smashing pumpkins you come up with Billy Corgan, D'arcy Wretzky, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin. But as you look through the pictures Jimmy almost disapears. Most of the picutres disclude him. Although Darcy left you still find tons of pictures of her and nearly none of Melissa Auf Der Mar unless you specifically search for her. I guess im wondering why it seems like Jimmy left and D'arcy stayed and Melissa never joined.  

Answer
Hi!

You have made a very good observation and you're right, there are plenty of pictures that Jimmy seems to have evaded, and there are hardly any with Melissa in them either, despite being in the band for the length of an album.

The reason Jimmy isnt in a lot of the pictures wasnt because of the photographer or by Jimmy's request or anything.  If you notice a lot of the early pictures, say, in the Gish era, Jimmy is in most of those if not all.  Once Siamese Dream came out and the band got big, however, Jimmy reportedly started doing heroin and drinking heavily.  Billy has discussed before how Jimmy would hardly ever show up for practices, sometimes leaving for days at a time without anyone knowing where he was.  So, it would seem that Jimmy simply didnt show up for many of the photograph sessions that the band had scheduled.  And of course, shortly after Mellon Collie came out, Jimmy was kicked from the band, so many of the post-Mellon Collie and Adore pictures were without him too.

D'arcy was a different matter though.  She adored the spotlight and could be found in most of the Pumpkins pictures.  After she left in 1999, however, she completely disappeared from the spotlight(some say drugs were involved, almost shadowing Jimmys behavior from years earlier), only resurfacing long enough to show off the horrible plastic surgery she had received.  And though Mellisa had taken her place.  At that point, the band wasnt near as popular as they once had been, so there wasnt much publicity or pictures taken at that time, so Mellisa wasnt as exposed as one would expect.