“I was a good bass player, and I am proud of my Celebrity Skin work, but oh my God, it changed my level of musicianship forever”: Melissa Auf der Maur on what she learned from playing with Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins

After finding herself thrust into the spotlight as the bass player of Hole in the midst of unimaginable grief – following the deaths of Kurt Cobain, husband of Courtney Love, and Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff – Melissa Auf der Maur held down the fort during the Live Through This and Celebrity Skin eras.

Fast forward five years, and Auf der Maur found herself playing alongside Billy Corgan in the Smashing Pumpkins. It was a full circle moment of sorts, as not only did she establish a relationship with Corgan way back in the early ’90s after witnessing the Pumpkins in Montréal, but her first band, Tinker, had opened for them in 1993 – and it was Corgan himself who recommended her to Love.

“When I saw the Smashing Pumpkins and Hole play in 1991, when I worked as a ticket girl, and I saw both of them play in front of 20 people, I knew what was happening,” Auf der Maur tells Bass Player in an upcoming interview in celebration of her memoir, Even the Good Girls Will Cry: My 90s Rock Memoir.

“The world was changing, and something huge and magical was happening for my generation. I picked up the bass because I wanted to be part of the movement of radical noise-making for my generation.”

As for making the career jump from Hole to the Pumpkins, Auf der Maur describes it in her book as an opportunity to “prove myself as a musician in a man’s world of epic riffs, arena concerts, and more private jets.”

“[From] the Pumpkins I learned how to be an incredible bass player,” she extrapolates in our interview. “Learning that catalog and playing 183 shows with those incredible players totally defines me as a bass player.

“I was a good bass player, and I am proud of my Celebrity Skin work, but oh my god. I mean, I changed my level of musicianship forever and opened my repertoire of understanding what my hands can do – and my solo records most certainly were expanded based on having to learn that catalog and play it with them.

“I always say the Pumpkins was my master's in music – just phenomenal music training.”

Bass Player's interview with Melissa Auf der Maur will be published in the coming weeks.

Speaking of the Smashing Pumpkins, Corgan recently reflected on a tonal journey four decades in the making and why he’s the most excited he’s been to make a guitar album in 25 years.