In an interview with TheDailyBeast.com that covers some familiar ground (recording Oceania, Rock ‘n’ Roll, last original Pumpkin) Billy tells the online publication about when the band would have bad shows in the early Pumpkins days and “I’d see my band mates stiffen up like they wanted to punch me. [I would tell the audience] “We’re very sorry. We’re not going to give you your money back. But we promise from this moment forward to make it more interesting.” You’d hear them go, “Uuurghhh!” Like mob mentality settling in. But the interesting thing about putting that energy out there, those concerts ended up being some of the greatest we ever played. It was all about the willingness to get off the train track.”
Talking about touring during Zeitgeist Billy says ”touring was a dark thing with people getting really pissed off and screaming. Coming off of that, I went back to the sandbox and decided I’m just going to go back to what I do, start over and take my lumps along the way.”
On why continue using the Pumpkin name he said “The name of the band means more than who’s in it. I have to be there. But maybe there comes a point like KISS where KISS is going to continue on without Gene [Simmons] and Paul [Stanley]. Maybe there’ll come a point in Smashing Pumpkins history where this band will continue on without me. I’ll just write songs.”
At the end of the Rock ‘n’ Roll day Billy says “If you’re really talented, you should be able to run until the end. Just like Neil Young or Johnny Cash. All these [indie rock] kids are going to wake up and realize they’ve been used. That’s where my heart hurts for them. When they go, “Wait, what happened to the circus that used to love me?” “
