Billy Corgan has admitted that breaking up the original Smashing Pumpkins line up was a “mistake.”

Discussing the latest in a long line of Smashing Pumpkins releases, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, in a recent interview with Spinner, Corgan said that the split “broke trust with the audience,” and went on to provide some insight into the motivation behind the recent regrouping in 2006.

“I can’t not do what I believe in because somebody else doesn’t feel the same way I do about it.”

“I’ve never been comfortable with the idea that you work for a couple of years just to come up with a pile of 12 songs and that becomes the album. I want people to hear what I’m doing but I think I only go so far. It won’t be at the expense of my life, my health, my sanity. If that makes me sort of just an ok artist, well then, I can live with that.”

Teargarden will be a 44-track whopper, set to be released song by song for free over the next few years, allowing the iconic front man to continue along his creative road.

Furthering his reputation as one of the quirkiest personalities in the music world, rumours are flying thick and fast that Corgan has been dating serial-blonde Jessica Simpson. Yep, really. As if things in the world of Billy Corgan weren’t strange enough…

- Carley Hall