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Billy Corgan: Pumpkins Split a “Mistake”

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File this one under “we could’ve told you that.”

In a recent interview with Spinner about the Smashing Pumpkins’ release plans for their 44-track album Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, frontman Billy Corgan admitted that breaking up the band’s original lineup in 2000 “was a mistake.”

The alt-rock vet explained that the band’s break, which lasted until he reformed with a new lineup in 2006, “broke trust with the audience.” Yet he defended his actions by saying, “I can’t not do what I believe in because somebody else doesn’t feel the same way I do about it.”

The Pumpkins plan to release Teargarden for free, one song at a time, over the next few years. “I’ve never been comfortable with the idea that you work for a couple years just to come up with a pile of 12 songs and that becomes the album,” said Corgan, the Pumpkins’ lone remaining original member. By parceling out the new material, the singer-guitarist hopes to “raise the quality of the songs that I release so that every song is important to me.”

As far his future plans, Corgan said, “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 okay artist, well then, I can live with that.”

Corgan — who just released the Pumpkins’ first new tune, “A Song for a Son,” which is about not having children — has been dating … wait for it … Jessica Simpson. According to a People source, the 42-year-old rocker and 29-year-old actress/singerare “taking things slow.” “They are getting to know each other,” said the source. “He’s a nice guy.”

What brought this unlikely couple together? Possibly religion. Corgan has been involved with holistic spirituality, even starting and maintaining a blog called Everything from Here to There. Simpson took to Twitter to offer her thoughts: “My friend, Billy Corgan, has a pure and enlightening outlook on faith.”