Melissa Auf der Maur, the ’90s rock figure known for her time with Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins, stepped back into the spotlight 33 years after co-founding her first band, Tinker.
The 54-year-old singer and bassist made a triumphant return alongside her former bandmates during The Smashing Pumpkins’ 17-song set at Lollapalooza in Chicago, Illinois, last week, reuniting onstage with frontman and longtime mentor Billy Corgan.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have one more special guest,” Corgan told the Grant Park crowd as he introduced the surprise appearance.
“Our former bandmate, a former member of Hole, Miss Melissa Auf der Maur!” he announced.
The Daily Mail contacted representatives for Auf der Maur for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.
Auf der Maur, who was born in Montreal and toured with The Smashing Pumpkins from 1999 to 2000, joined the band in a red floral dress for their closing number, Heavy Metal Machine.
’90s grunge rock icon Melissa Auf der Maur (L, pictured in 1998), who played with Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins, has returned to the spotlight 33 years after co-founding her first band, Tinker
Auf der Maur, who left Hole in 1999, launched her solo career in 2004 and went on to release two studio albums. (Pictured at a 1999 Hole concert)
‘Floating and grateful,’ Auf der Maur wrote on Instagram Monday as she reflected on the performance.
‘I miss my bass, I miss you out there, the listeners and receivers … to say nothing of my fellow misfit poet musicians who have crystallized such inner crevasses of my life.’
It was 59-year-old Grammy winner Corgan who originally recommended Auf der Maur to his friend, Courtney Love, to join her band Hole after original bassist Kristen Pfaff died from a heroin overdose in 1994.
‘Safe to say that was the radical gateway to the rest of my music mania life,’ Auf der Maur noted.
The avid photographer – who left Hole in 1999 – began her solo career in 2004 and released two studio albums, Auf der Maur and Out of Our Minds.
On July 20, she announced she was releasing her first new music in over 15 years, Bass Womb Room: My ’90s 4-Track Demos X Field Recordings, out September 4 via cassette and digital means.
It features eight new interludes and seven four-track tape recorder demos written and recorded by the rock goddess back in the nineties at her home.
‘I wrote these songs in the context of rising pressure from the major label–driven music industry on myself and my peers to make glossy hit songs to dominate radio airwaves,’ Auf der Maur said in a statement.
These days the famed musician is also an author, Substack blogger and photographer. (Pictured July 28)
Auf der Maur is pictured an event for her book ‘Even The Good Girls Will Cry’ in New York on March 17
‘These songs are the sound of my internal experimentation and a way of keeping the Montreal art girl alive inside. These sounds are the quiet and private side of the girl who joined the big American major label rock band.’
Auf der Maur’s upcoming exhibition My ’90s Rock Photographs runs September 2-10, and an accompanying 240-page photobook will hit shelves September 8.
‘It is a sound and visual installation, an ode to the force of the bass that has moved me onstage and offstage. It’s deeply conceptual and I’ve been working on a score for that exhibit,’ she told Bass Magazine in May.
‘While I’ve been in the studio doing that, I’ve decided that I also want to have fun, so I’m working on a very carefully curated cover album, which is also an ode to my bass in the form of electronic, industrial, new wave music that uses synth bass covered by me on electric with real drums. That will probably come out next year.’
But first, Auf der Maur is next scheduled to appear at the Kitchener Public Library in Kitchener, Ontario, on August 27 for a sold-out conversation with Tara Slone.
Auf Der Maur’s exhibition My ’90s Rock Photographs runs September 2-10, and the 240-page photobook will hit shelves September 8
The active Substacker made her literary debut on March 17 when Da Capo published her 432-page autobiography, Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A ’90s Rock Memoir.
In the tell-all, Auf der Maur recalled her romance with Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman, Dave Grohl, which spanned from 1999 to 2001.
‘To have a man you love, who also happens to be the best drummer on the planet — as a bass player, that’s pretty f***ing cool,’ the Active Heart singer told Bass Mag.
‘It was definitely the most romantic thing that had happened up until that point. That time with Dave was so joyous, but also so enriching musically.’
Auf der Maur welcomed 14-year-old daughter River during her 20-year marriage to filmmaker Tony Stone, and the couple owns the multi-disciplinary art center Basilica Hudson in New York.
She reportedly previously dated rocker Andrew W.K. and her Tinker co-founder Steve Durand.
