“I never thought little ol’ 15-year-old me playing metal guitar in the bedroom would amount to this moment”: After 10,000 applicants, Kiki Wong landed the Smashing Pumpkins guitarist gig

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2024 Year in Review: Billy Corgan and co hosted the biggest guitarist search of the year – and there could only be one winner

Kiki Wong and Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins perform onstage during The 33rd Annual KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas 2024 at The Kia Forum on December 14, 2024 in Inglewood, California.
(Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Audacy)

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.

The Smashing Pumpkins – Sighommi - YouTube The Smashing Pumpkins – Sighommi - YouTube
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Amit Sharma
Amit Sharma

Amit has been writing for titles like Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Guitar World for over a decade and counts Richie Kotzen, Guthrie Govan and Jeff Beck among his primary influences as a guitar player. He's worked for magazines like Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Prog, Record Collector, Planet Rock, Rhythm and Bass Player, as well as newspapers like Metro and The Independent, interviewing everyone from Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy to Slash and Jimmy Page, and once even traded solos with a member of Slayer on a track released internationally. As a session guitarist, he's played alongside members of Judas Priest and Uriah Heep in London ensemble Metalworks, as well as handled lead guitars for legends like Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, The Faces) and Stu Hamm (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, G3).

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