Following the surviving members of Soundgarden’s countersuit against Chris Cornell’s widow Vicky over the singer’s final recordings, Vicky Cornell’s legal team issued a statement decrying the accusations as “salacious, scurrilous, and vicious.”
In Soundgarden’s countersuit, members Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd accused Vicky Cornell and Chris’ estate of “fraudulent inducement” for allegedly using revenue intended to be raised for charity for “personal purposes for herself and her family.” The suit alleges the “recipient(s) of the revenue” from the “I Am the Highway: A Tribute to Chris Cornell” concert in January 2019 “have not been identified.”
“It is unfortunate that Chris Cornell’s three former bandmates – who have made millions of dollars from Chris’ hard work, talent and creativity – continue to attack Chris’ legacy, his widow, and his young children by making salacious, scurrilous, and vicious allegations in order to distract from the truth,” Vicky Cornell’s lawyer Marty Singer responded in a statement.
“Their transparently desperate counterclaims do not change the fact that they are the ones who have improperly asserted ownership of vocal recordings that were created solely by Chris and that they are the ones who have unlawfully withheld substantial sums of money from Chris’ widow and children (which is the very basis for the current lawsuit).”
Singer said of those accusations, “As Chris’ former band members are well aware, every single penny of the proceeds generated by the concert were properly allocated and accounted for and their statements are not only false and defamatory but demonstrate the depths to which Chris’ former bandmates are willing to sink to tarnish his legacy.”
At the heart of the lawsuit between Soundgarden and Vicky Cornell are a series of unreleased recordings Cornell made prior to his May 2017 death; the band says the vocals were destined for Soundgarden’s next album, while Vicky Cornell contends the recordings were Chris’ “sole and exclusive property.” Vicky also accused the band’s surviving members of withholding royalties related to their music.
In addition to Singer’s statement, Cornell’s widow also criticized Soundgarden over social media. “As my beloved Chris would say, ‘They’ve reached a whole new low.’ A very easily disproven one…,” she wrote in her Instagram Stories.
“When you attack the foundation, you attack my husband’s legacy. The foundation has nothing to do with the issue of who owns Chris’s vocal recordings. Their knowingly false allegations are a deliberate attempt to not just harm my credibility but the Foundation my husband and I created and everything WE stand for…”
Full Statement – Vicky Cornell’s Lawyer Marty Singer Responds to Soundgarden Countersuit
“It is unfortunate that Chris Cornell’s three former bandmates – who have made millions of dollars from Chris’ hard work, talent and creativity – continue to attack Chris’ legacy, his widow, and his young children by making salacious, scurrilous, and vicious allegations in order to distract from the truth. Their transparently desperate counterclaims – which were intentionally filed shortly before the eve of the anniversary of Chris’ death and the eve of Chris and Vicky’s wedding anniversary – do not change the fact that they are the ones who have improperly asserted ownership of vocal recordings that were created solely by Chris and that they are the ones who have unlawfully withheld substantial sums of money from Chris’ widow and children (which is the very basis for the current lawsuit).
Suffice it to say that Vicky Cornell and the Cornell Estate vehemently deny the supposed “facts” contained in Soundgarden’s counterclaims, which will be met with swift legal action. It is ironic that Chris’ former bandmates now feign outrage over the 2019 Chris Cornell Tribute Concert conducted by Chris’s foundation – which raised over $1 million for the Charity Foundation and paid over $650,000 for EBMRF for medical research and which has nothing whatsoever to do with the issue of who owns Chris’ vocal recordings – – when Soundgarden received over $78,000 to perform at the charity concert .
As Chris’ former band members are well aware, every single penny of the proceeds generated by the concert were properly allocated and accounted for and their statements are not only false and defamatory but demonstrate the depths to which Chris’ former bandmates are willing to sink to tarnish his legacy.
It is also ironic that, after spending substantial time and attorneys’ fees (paid for out of the monies owed to Chris’ estate) arguing that the Florida court system lacks personal jurisdiction over them, Chris’ former bandmates have now sought relief from that very same court system by filing their counterclaims.”
