Filter And Smashing Pumpkins Representatives Quiet On Break-Up Reports

01/19/2000 7:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(1/19/00, 7 a.m. ET) - Filter's publicist and Smashing Pumpkins publicist have no comment regarding reports out of England saying that Billy Corgan will disband his group. Members of Filter have claimed that the Pumpkins will call it quits after the album promotion and tour behind their forthcoming album, Machina - The Machines Of God.

Filter's own future was in doubt at one point in time, and frontman Richard Patrick told LAUNCH that Corgan gave him what could be prescient advice on how do deal with band problems. "I was talking to Billy Corgan about something, and he just said, 'You know, Richie, I hear you talking about all this stuff.' He's, like, 'You've got to remember, you're the sh-t. You sing. You write the songs. It's your band. You don't have to be a dictator. You don't have to be a d-ck. You don't have to be an a--hole. You have to realize, it's your band.'"

If the current reports turn out to be true, Corgan may have let his own advice sink in and subsequently decided that he's had enough of democratic music making.

In other Pumpkins news, the band will be playing a live Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher Super Bowl special on Jan. 30, although details are sketchy at the moment.

-- Darren Davis and Barry Jeckell, New York

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