2024 Year in Review: After 16 years with the band, Jeff Schroeder announced his departure from the Smashing Pumpkins late last year, and the iconic alt-rockers soon announced they’d be holding a worldwide open-call audition for a live replacement.
More than 10,000 applicants later, it was decided that Kiki Wong was the right person for the job.
“I never thought little ol’ 15-year-old me playing metal guitar in the bedroom would amount to this moment,” she said not long after the announcement, adding “it goes to show that hard work and perseverance truly pays off if you’re willing to push through the tough stuff.”
The guitarist played her first show alongside co-guitarists Billy Corgan and James Iha in Birmingham, England, in June, with audiences praising how naturally she fit into the legendary Chicago group’s dreamy wall of fuzz.
