Soundgarden has claimed ownership of unreleased recordings made by the band’s late frontman, Chris Cornell, in a legal response to the lawsuit brought against the group by Chris’ widow, Vicky Cornell.
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The original lawsuit from Vicky, filed in December, alleged that the surviving Soundgarden members withheld hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties from her and Chris’ family, in addition to Soundgarden’s attempt to profit from Cornell’s unreleased recordings. Now, remaining members Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, Ben Shepherd, and the band’s business manager Rit Venerus, have responded with a motion of their own, denying all of Vicky’s allegations.
This legal quagmire centers around seven unreleased recordings that Chris Cornell made shortly before he took his own life in 2017. Since Chris’ death, Vicky has maintained control of the recordings, alleging that these were part of a solo project Chris was working on and were not for a collaborative album with the rest of Soundgarden. In the original lawsuit filed in Florida Federal Court, Vicky also accused the remaining Soundgarden members of ceasing royalty payments in an effort to strong-arm her into relinquishing the recordings so the band can finish the album they say Chris was working on with them.
Originally, Vicky had agreed to share the recordings with the rest of the band on the condition that they used one of Chris’ trusted producers, named in the filing as veteran producer Brendan O’ Brien, as well as keep her informed about a possible marketing strategy for the album. She later claimed that the band opted to bring in its own producer and told her that it wasn’t willing to go “through any type of approval process” in regards to the marketing.
In response, Soundgarden claims that the unreleased music from Chris was actually part of writing and recording sessions from as far back as 2015. Additionally, the band rejected Vicky’s claim of withheld royalties, claiming that even they aren’t being paid at the moment and won’t be until “the Partnership, by vote of the Remaining Partners, formally elects to make such a distribution.” Lastly, the response takes issue with Vicky’s decision to file in Florida, asserting that she has no real connection to the state and proposes Washington as a more suitable venue.
“We don’t have possession of our own creative work,” Soundgarden said in a statement.
On Tuesday, after news broke of the band’s response, Vicky appeared to respond on her Instagram with a quote from Jane Austen, “there is a stubbornness about me that can never bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”
Read Soundgarden’s 25-page legal response here.