Smashing Pumpkins Drummer, Jimmy Chamberlain

Born in Joliet, Illinois on June 10, 1964, Jimmy Chamberlain has proved to be one of the best newer drummers, songwriters, and musical producers in America. Of course he is best known as being the former drummer for Smashing Pumpkins, the alternative rock band.

James Joseph Chamberlin being Jimmy's birth name, he was one of six children in a family that supported music. His father and older brother both were active jazz musicians and played in bands locally, they played the clarinet and drums respectively. Paul, his older brother, still plays drums today with a local cover band.

Chamberlin began his drumming at the age of 9. He was instructed and taught Latin, Brazilian, and big band techniques, but primarily focused on jazz styles. Charlie Adams was his tutor who taught him all of these techniques in his early drumming years. At age 15, Jimmy left his home and joined local band after local band after local band and so on. His early music career did prove to be profitable, but his father nonetheless pressured him into enrolling in college, therefore he did and spent about a year at Northern Illinois University.

In 1988, Chamberlin finally joined the Smashing Pumpkins. They were looking for a drummer to fill in their empty position for a live show at the Metro, a club in Chicago. Billy Corgan met Chamberlin met through a friend and that is when Jimmy revealed that he was interested in filling the spot.

Both Jimmy and Billy were skeptical about each other at first, thinking that it wouldn't work. However, Jimmy learned all of the songs with the quickness and proved to be a positive addition to the band for years to come. Although Chamberlin was making plenty of money as a carpenter, soon after meeting up with Billy, he would give up the Job and move to Chicago and completely devote all of his time to the band. Once he joined, the Smashing Pumpkins began sounding more intense than ever. They went on to release the first two albums Gish and Siamese Dream. Both of these albums were mainly focused on Corgan and Chamberlin alone.

Unfortunately, Chamberlin produced an addiction to heroin during this time period. During the recording of Siamese Dream, he would often disappear for days at a time, of course fulfilling the apparent needs of his addiction, but the band would be waiting for him and fearing for his life while he was away as they did not even hear from him most of the time and he most certainly didn't tell them where he was going and what he was doing, although they did indeed know what he was doing.

He would remain with the band for a little while and then was kicked out for his problem. He was later reinstated, but the band broke up shortly after. Chamberlin continued to play drums, and even joined the members in a reformation of the Smashing Pumpkins in 2005, but however left the band again in the March of 2009.

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