Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addition are teaming up for a North American arena tour in the autumn, and to launch the trek, the two legendary alt. rock groups joined forces last week on The Howard Stern Show for a one-off 'supergroup' performance.
Admitting that they dismissed the idea of calling their unified collective Jane's Pumpkins as that name sounded "too bawdy", Billy Corgan and Perry Farrell led the group - minus guitarists James Iha and Dave Navarro, for reasons not explained - through a special performance of JA classic Jane Says for their host.
Speaking to the host about the upcoming Spirits On Fire tour, a 32-date run which will launch in Dallas, Texas on October 2, and run through to November 19, for a show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan says, "We have a long, long, crazy history... the Pumpkins opened for Jane's in 1988, when Nothing's Shocking was coming out, I believe, right around Thanksgiving... and we've literally had this crazy history back and forth through all these years... beautiful."
"We're about to go on tour with one of the greatest bands ever, [and] The Smashing Pumpkins are, by nature, a competitive lot, and to share a stage with Jane's Addiction each night... they'll kick our ass if we're not careful. But the beautiful thing is that there's so much family love between the two camps... I really want Jane's at their best and I want us at our best, and that's the way we're going to show our love for each other to the audience. We will give our supreme effort each night."
