D'arcy Wretzky

D'arcy Elizabeth Wretzky-Brown (born May 1, 1968) is an American musician.

She was the original bassist of the alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins and is credited on their first six studio albums.

She contributes vocally in Smashing Pumpkins songs such as "Daydream" from Gish, many songs on Siamese Dream, "1979", "Cupid De Locke", "Farewell and Goodnight", "Beautiful"; "Where Boys Fear to Tread" from Mellon Collie, and "Dreaming" and "The Bells" from The Aeroplane Flies High.

Wretzky also co-wrote the Smashing Pumpkins song "Daughter".

Wretzky's hyphenated name, "Wretzky-Brown", comes from her having been married to musician Kerry Brown, from 1993 to 1999.

In 1995, Wretzky and Iha started an independent record label called Scratchie Records, featuring artists such as The Frogs.

Wretzky's time in the band was marked by alternating periods of happiness and discomfort.

Corgan considered her the "moral authority" and "moral conscience" of the band.

In the aftermath of the success of 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Corgan said she began an "apparent slow descent into insanity and/or drugs (take your pick)."

After the short, nine-date "The Arising!"

She left the band in 1999.

She has also been a member of Catherine and performed with Filter.

Wretzky was born and raised in South Haven, Michigan, where her mother, Vikke Anderson, a working musician, encouraged D'arcy and her sisters to perform music.

Growing up, she played the violin and oboe and performed in choirs.

She also performed gymnastics.

Wretzky intended to start a musical career since she was 10 years old.

She later referred to her father, Jerry Wretzky, a pipefitter with a love of horseback riding, as "a very strange man".

The young Wretzky was a self-described "tomboy", and had a contentious relationship with her sister.

Wretzky suffered from severe stage fright during her childhood.

She attended South Haven's L.C. Mohr High School, where she grew interested in post-punk and played in cover bands.

After high school, she moved to France to join a band, but the band had already disbanded upon her arrival, prompting her to return to the United States, where she then moved to Chicago and later joined the Smashing Pumpkins.

Wretzky stated that she is a self-taught bass player.

According to Wretzky, she had a miscarriage in 1999.

After a concert at a local rock club, Wretzky overheard Billy Corgan criticizing the band that had performed.

An argument and discussion followed, and Corgan recruited her into his band, the nascent Smashing Pumpkins, which, at the time, was merely Corgan and James Iha, using a drum machine.

Wretzky accepted, and Jimmy Chamberlin completed the lineup a few months later, after Joe Shanahan encouraged Corgan to add a live drummer.

Wretzky is the credited bassist on the Smashing Pumpkins' first five studio albums: Gish, Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Adore, and Machina/The Machines of God.

It was confirmed by both her and Corgan, however, that Corgan played the bass tracks on Gish and Siamese Dream.

Wretzky often contributed backing vocals on some songs on studio albums and in concert.

tour in April 1999 which saw all four original members performing together for the first time since 1996, Wretzky decided to leave the band with intentions of pursuing an acting career.

The band was recording Machina/The Machines of God and Machina II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music at the time and consequently she performed very few bass parts on the album.

Most of the bass parts were handled by Corgan himself.

Shortly after leaving the group, she was arrested for possession of crack cocaine.

Corgan later commented she was "fired for being a mean-spirited drug addict who refused to get help."

She was replaced on 2000's Machina tours by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur.

Wretzky did not participate in the Smashing Pumpkins' reunion.

In 2008, she and her former boyfriend and bandmate James Iha filed a lawsuit against Virgin Records for selling ringtones of Smashing Pumpkins songs without their consent.

After many years out of the spotlight, Wretzky resurfaced in July 2009 by calling in unexpectedly on Chicago's Q101 FM with Ryan Manno.

During the interview, she stated that she was not healthy enough to be a musician, and repeatedly professed her admiration for Monkees frontman Davy Jones who was known to be an early romantic crush of Wretzky's. She also discussed her appreciation for the band Silversun Pickups who have a sound influenced by the early Gish era of the Smashing Pumpkins.

She also mentioned that she then lived on a farm in Michigan, that she had briefly lived in Austin, Texas, sometime during the previous decade, and that her former fiancé Wendell Green had died.