Longtime guitarist for The Smashing Pumpkins, Jeff Schroeder, has released a statement announcing his exit from the band. The remaining members of the group have commented on his departure in a statement of their own.
The news came from a post on the band’s social media, which features both statements separately.
“It’s easy to say now that when I joined The Smashing Pumpkins in 2007 I had no idea what I was getting into. The opportunity seemed to have come out of nowhere.
I was at UCLA working on my doctorate in comparative literature when a close friend messaged me and said that The Smashing Pumpkins were looking for a guitar player. Being a huge fan of the band, the audition was something I threw myself into. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life,” Schroeder wrote.
“The amount of incredible memories created over the last 16 years with the band are almost too numerous to quantify.
Although it was a very difficult decision to make, I’ve decided to leave the band to make some space to explore a slightly different path.
I want to thank Billy, Jimmy, James and Jack for being both wonderful bandmates and even better friends. I will absolutely miss sharing the stage with you. I wish the band all the success in the future. I will be watching and listening.”
Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin commented on Schroeder’s departure in their own statement, writing, “We thank Jeff for his ceaseless dedication to the band and our great fans.
Words can not express our gratitude and appreciation for the friend he is, and being there for SP in the good times and the tough times, too.”
See the post below.
As noted in his statement, Schroeder joined The Smashing Pumpkins in 2007 after Corgan and Chamberlin reunited to record Zeitgeist.
The guitarist played on every studio album they’ve released since then, and was the only official member of the band credited on 2014’s Monuments to an Elegy aside from Corgan.
READ MORE: Billy Corgan Recalls Telling Pantera to ‘Shut the F–k Up’ About Metallica
The Smashing Pumpkins have a tour booked for the spring of 2024 in the U.K. and Ireland with Weezer. At this time, it’s unclear whether they will recruit another guitarist in Schroeder’s place for the tour. See all of the dates on their website.
Guns N’ Roses are probably one of the first bands that come to mind when thinking about lineup inconsistencies. For starters, the Appetite for Destruction lineup that they became famous for — Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler and Izzy Stradlin — was not actually the original lineup.
And then, of course, more and more members started quitting and getting fired, and by the end of the ’90s, Rose was the only member from the Appetite lineup left in the band.
As he took Guns through its lengthy Chinese Democracy era, there was a revolving door of musicians making contributions, including Buckethead, Josh Freese, Robin Finck, Chris Pitman and more.
Now, Rose is once again joined by Slash and McKagan, as well as Richard Fortus, Melissa Reese, Frank Ferrer and Dizzy Reed — who’s remained in the group since he was hired in the early ’90s.
We actually did an in-depth look at every musician who’s been an official member of GN’R, which you can check out here.
Black Sabbath
While there are only a few iterations of Black Sabbath that are popular, they’ve also had a fair share of members since their inception in 1968.
The original quartet of Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler is the lineup that got them massive success, but it didn’t last more than a decade.
Iommi, Butler and Ward played with various singers throughout their career after Osbourne’s departure, most notably Ronnie James Dio, Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes, Tony Martin and a few more before Osbourne re-joined.
However, Sabbath have also had a few other musicians play tenures with them as well, including Vinny Appice, Geoff Nicholls, Eric Singer and more.
Similar to Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden had many different vocalists since it first formed — a total of five — but they also had a lot of musicians cycle in and out over the years. They’ve had about 15 combinations of members total.
Paul Day and Dennis Wilcock were technically the first two singers in the band, but Paul Di’Anno was the first one who actually performed on one of their studio albums, their 1980 self-titled debut, followed by 1981’s Killers.
Bruce Dickinson became their most well-known frontman, and has appeared on the majority of Maiden’s discography, though he did take a break from the band for a couple of years.
To this day, Steve Harris has been the only constant member of Iron Maiden, and he’s currently joined by Dickinson, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Nicko McBrain and Janick Gers.
Megadeth
Megadeth have also had over 20 official members play in the band at some point since they formed in 1983. Initially, the thrash band consisted of Dave Mustaine, Chris Poland, David Ellefson and Gar Samuelson, according to the lineup timeline on their website.
Aside from Mustaine, Ellefson was the second-most steady member of Megadeth. Though he was out of the group for a period in the 2000s, he made his return in 2010. However, in 2021, he was fired as a result of some allegations that surfaced online against him.
More than any other position, Megadeth has had the longest list of both guitarists and drummers. After Poland, Jeff Young took the role as guitarist, then Marty Friedman, Al Pitrelli, Glen Drover, Chris Broderick and Kiko Loureiro.
As for drummers, after Samuelson was Chuck Behler, Nick Menza, Jimmy DeGrasso, Shawn Drover, Chris Adler and now Dirk Verbeuren.
Anthrax started as a quartet in 1981, comprised of Scott Ian, Dan Lilker, Dave Weiss and Joe Gelione — but that version of the band was short-lived.
Paul Kahn and John Connelly took the places of Weiss and Gelione, respectively, and the replacements continued even after that.
By the time they released their debut album Fistful of Metal in 1984, Ian and Lilker were the only member that had survived the wave of turnovers. The duo was joined by Neil Turbin, Dan Spitz and Charlie Benante, though Joey Belladonna would soon replace Turbin and Bello would take over for Lilker.
This lineup stuck for a bit, through their albums Spreading the Disease (1985), Among the Living (1987), State of Euphoria (1988) and Persistence of Time (1990). 1993’s Sound of White Noise started a new phase for the band where Belladonna was replaced by John Bush, but Joey is currently back in the band with Ian, Benante, Bello and guitarist Jonathan Donais.
Deep Purple are another group that has had many different singers. Out of all the different members that have been in the band, four were lead vocalists.
Rod Evans was their first frontman before Ian Gillan took the position, and he’s been singing for them throughout the majority of their existence. However, David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes as well Joe Lynn Turner also had stints as the band’s singer.
In total, they’ve had about eight different official lineups, but despite the turnover they endured, Deep Purple, just like the others on this list, have remained a household name all these years.
