As the 90’s ushered in a new era of rock music dubbed alternative rock or by some ‘grunge’,
one of the bands that was part of this new movement were The Smashing Pumpkins. The
Chicago band would first appear on to the scene in 1991 with their debut record Gish. Two years later
they would become full fledged superstars with the release of their second record Siamese Dream and
their follow up two disc release Melon Collie and Infinite Sadness. But fame would come at a cost
with tragedy, in-fighting and out of control egos. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin who would be vital to the
band’s sound, would leave the group several times throughout his career and none was more tragic
than the mid 90’s. Today, let’s explore the career of Jimmy Chamberlin in The Smashing Pumpkins.
Born to a large family of 6 kids, Chamberlin would grow up, in Joliet (Jawliet), Illinois,
35 miles south of Chicago. The drummer would grow up in a musical family with both his older brother
Paul and father playing drums and clarinet and being part of jazz bands. Chamberlin admitted
to modern drummer at a young age “I did have the rock ethic, though--I definitely wanted the
chicks and the fast cars--but not necessarily the long hair and the twenty-piece drumkit.”
By the time Chamberlin was 9 he took 5 years of lessons from drummer Charlie Adams who would go on
to play for Yanni. In addition to that Chamberlin learned from his older brother and practiced up to
four hours a day and took furtherlessons in high school from other instructors.
Chamberlin was such a gifted drummer, that he didn’t play in any high school bands,
instead playing with musicians ten years older than him with him reccalling Modern Drummer
Magazine “I didn't really every play in high school bands. I played with this garage group
called the Warrior Band, which played Pat Travers-type music, and they were all about
twenty-five and pretty good musicians. There I was, fifteen years old, playing Friday and
Saturday nights, getting sloshed, and having to go back to school on Monday. At sixteen, I had a
girlfriend who was twenty-three! But I was making $400 a week doing these gigs, and I was totally
convinced at that point that music was something I was going to do for the rest of my life.”
Despite sharing similar musical interests with his father, Chamberlin had a stained relationship
with his Dad, leaving home at age 15 and by the mid 90’s hadn’t even spoken to his father
despite his new found fame. He would tell Rolling Stone how despite his middle
class upbringing he had a bad childhood recalling "It was highly dysfunctional.
"My father was really abusive. I decided early on that I didn't want to be like him."
After graduating from Northern Illinois university, Chamberlin headed to Chicago
and would split his time working as a carpenter while also playing in jazz bands. He would end up
being a late addition to The Smashing Pumpkins who were originally a trio with frontman Billy
Corgan, guitarist James iha and bassist D’Arcy Wretzky using a drum machine during live gigs.
Chamberlin would recall to drummer magazine in 1994 his first impression of the band saying
“So I went out and saw the band – Billy, James, and D'arcy – playing at Avalon with
a drum machine. Man, did they sound horrible! They were atrocious. But the thing I noticed
was that not only were the song structures good, but Billy's voice had a lot of drive to it, like
he was dying to succeed. So I ended up driving from work every Wednesday to rehearse with them.”
Corgan would admit that he didn’t initially think Chamberlin was a good fit for the band pointing to
his fashion, which included a mullet, pink t-shirt and stonewashed jeans in addition to his yellow
drum kit. It would be Chamberlin’s persistence and the fact that he learned all the band’s songs
pretty quickly that resulted in Corgan changing his mind. Chamberlin bonded with his bandmates
over similar difficult upbringings with him telling Rolling Stone “I relate to him man to man,
and that's it," Chamberlin says of Corgan adding. "I'm not the type of guy to say, 'Oh,
you've had such a rough life,' because nobody says that to me, and my life has been plenty rough."
With Chamberlin in the lineup, the band would record their debut record Gish in 1991. Despite
being praised by critics the album came out five months before Nirvana’s Nevermind, Gish only
peaked at number 195 on the billboard 200 charts. It would eventually be certified platinum, but by
1993 The Smashing Pumpkins were now superstars thanks to their follow up release Siamese Dream.
With that fame came a lot of personal problems with Chamberlin telling Modern Drummer magazine
"We felt enormous pressure to make a great record, and it definitely got to us--and to me,
personally," James Iha and D’Arcy Wretzky who were a couple during the tour for Gish
also broke up during that time. Also adding to the band’s issues were frontman Billy Corgan’s
mental health issues that led to him having a breakdown in 1992 and going into therapy. Couple
this with Chamberlin’s substance abuse issues and the band was a powder keg ready to explode.
Corgan’s time in therapy resulted in him opting to talk more openly about
the band’s issues creating tensions within the group.
By corgan’s own admission the band nearly imploded during the making of Siamese Dream.
The band would record their second album in Georgia to keep costs low and to keep Chamberlin
out of trouble. But the move didn’t work. Sometimes Chamberlin was too inebriated to
play and once disappeared for a week. Corgan gave Chamberlin an ultimatum, get clean or your fired,
and it seemed to work, at least for the time being. Chamberlin would attend rehab with his
sponsor being at the time Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro. The drummer would tell
Rolling Stone 'I'm sure it's obvious to you at this point that I have a problem,'
They were afraid to come to me and tell me my life was a mess. And now, for me,
I've done an amazing job of staying clean. I'd gotten high in every city in this country
and probably half the cities in Europe." That sobriety seemed to be short lived
as Rolling Stone would write on their 1994 profile on the band when they hit the road
“Still some days are better than others. Backstage in Chicago, as the band waited to sound check,
reports began floating in that Chamberlin - who was spotted the night before in a bar-had
fallen off the wagon. A search party was sent out.
D'Arcy stared at her feet and said tersely, "This used to be funny. It's just not anymore,"
When the band returned in 1995 for their third record, the ambitious double disc
Melancholy and Infinite Sadness, things got even worse. Chamberlin would prophetically tell
Spin magazine ahead of the band hitting the road for the record “this tour will tell us
a lot about whatever future the band has.” Joining the band on the tour was keyboardist
Johnathan Melvoin whose past credits included the punk band The Dickies and musician Prince.
Ironically Melvoin’s father was a strong anti-drug advocate in the music industry.
He would be recommended to Corgan by Ministry vocalist Chris Connoly.
There would be two incidents that foreshadowed what was to come in the spring of 1996.
During a tour stop in Bangkok, Thailand a hotbed for drugs, Chamberlin fell off the
wagon. Corgan would reveal to MTV that the band knew Chamberlin had returned to his old ways,
but believed his partying was limited to just happening on the weekends. As the band headed
to Australia Chamberlin would learn that his father had passed away. The news only seemed
to push the drummer further down the rabbit hole and the band’s Australia dates were postponed. In
the meantime the band headed back home to Chicago. And IT was during this time that Melvoin witnessed
teh birth of his son. Then in May the band was in Europe on tour and during a stop in Spain
both melvoin and chamberlin overdosed, ending up in the hospital. Both musicians would survive,
but they wouldn’t be so lucky a few months later. Melvoin was temporarily fired,
but due to Corgan liking the keyboardist and not having a replacement for the rest of the tour, he
gave him another chance. Chamberlin meanwhile soon saw sober coaches, and handlers joining the band
on tour to keep him and Melvoin out of trouble, but it proved to be futile. Despite keeping
Chamberlin and Melvoin’s problems under wraps from the press, it would come out in the open in
July of 96. The band was in New York to perform at Madison Square Garden. On July 12th both Melvoin
and Chamberlin were staying at a different hotel than the rest of the band and MTV would report the
pair returned to Melvoin’s room at 11pm at night and Melvoin would die at the age of 34 due to a
deadly combination of drugs and alcohol in the early hours of the morning the following day.
The members of the band would appear at the19th precinct police station to answer questions by
the cops. None of the surviving members would appear at the keyboardists funeral.
The group’s tour would be put on pause until until August as
Chamberlin would be fired from the band. . Corgan defended the band’s decision to fire
Chamberlain saying "We fired the guy to save his life. We could not continue thinking, 'Hmm, maybe
he'll get better.' We were criticized for being intolerant and not helping Jimmy when he needed
us most. Believe me, the guy couldn't have had any more chances. He used up all his chances
plus five. For everyone's safety and mental health stability, we had to part company."
The Tampa Bay Tribune would report that the drummer plead guiilty to the reduced
charge before Criminal Court Judge as part of a deal in which he will undergo drug treatment.
If Chamberlin successfully completes a rehabilitation program by December,
his court records would be sealed. If he fails, he will
serve 15 days in jail. The paper would report. In 1999 Chamberlin returned to the Smashing
Pumpkins, a feat Corgan once said would take and i quote “a lot of tea in China” to happen.
It was strange because there was no formal announcement by the Pumpkins camp and they
instead chose to just let word trickle out that he was back in the band according to MTV News.
Even before his first show back with the band no one from the Pumpkins camp would talk about his
return. 1999 saw the Pumpkins on tour promoting their fourth album Adore, which Chamberlin never
played on and they were on tour with Queens of the Stone Age. MTV would interview Queens
frontman Josh Homme who first leaked the news that Jimmy Chamberlin was joining the band telling
the news network "Dude, Jimmy's back in the band." "To me that says they're gonna rock
again.. Because that's when they kick ass, when they
have Jimmy. He's not the only key to it, but that team between Jimmy and Billy
is a cool little thing The band would continue
on until 2000 before calling it quits. But in 2006 the smashing pumpkins would return with
Chamberlin and Corgan being the only classic members returning and the band put out 2007’s
Zeitgeist.. By 2009 Chamberlin quit the band again putting out a statement that read
By now you have heard the news of my departure from the Smashing Pumpkins.
I will say, without going into any unnecessary details that this represents a positive move
forward for me,” Chamberlin writes. “I can no longer commit all of my energy into something
that I don’t fully possess. I won’t pretend I’m into something I’m not. I won’t do it to myself,
you the fan, or my former partner. I can’t just, ‘Cash the check’ so to speak.”
It was speculated that perhaps Chamberlin was tired of the band supposedly ‘selling out’
with their music appearing in visa, hyndai commercials and guitar hero.
In addition to that frontman Billy Corgan at the time appeared in Washington to testify in
favour of a live nation ticketmaster merger. Six years later the drummer once again returned to
“[Billy Corgan] found himself in the position of just not having a drummer for the tour
and he wanted to play the set that we’re going to play so he just reached out on email and said
before he goes looking for someone to play those songs, which is obviously a long task,
was there any way I could go out for this tour?” Chamberlin told Rhythm. “It’s very exciting to go
back and celebrate that music in a great context. It is embracing the friendship, the relationship
and the music and proving that the music and the relationships are much bigger than all the
politics from down the years. I thought about it for about a second and then said yes.”