Chris Cornell's Widow Files Lawsuit Against Soundgarden

Chris Cornell (Tinseltown/Shutterstock.com)

ALL ACCESS has learned that according to ROLLING STONE, the late SOUNDGARDEN vocalist CHRIS CORNELL's widow, VICKY CORNELL, has filed a lawsuit against SOUNDGARDEN, claiming the band is withholding royalties from her over seven unreleased recordings CORNELL made before he died in 2017 (NET NEWS 5/18/17).

The lawsuit was filed TODAY In a FLORIDA court and names CORNELL’s former SOUNDGARDEN band members KIM THAYIL, MATT CAMERON, and BEN SHEPHERD along with the band's manager RIT VENERUS.

The lawsuit claims the band “shamelessly conspired to wrongfully withhold hundreds of thousands of dollars indisputably owed to CHRIS’ widow and minor children in an unlawful attempt to strong-arm CHRIS’ Estate into turning over certain audio recordings created by CHRIS before he passed away.”

The lawsuit also said that CORNELL made the seven recordings at his personal studio in FLORIDA in 2017 and alleges there was never any explicit agreement that these songs were for SOUNDGARDEN, and that CORNELL was the exclusive owner of them. After CORNELL’s death, the band reached out to VICKY, who agreed to share the unreleased recordings with SOUNDGARDEN as long as they used one of CORNELL’s “trusted producers” and kept her informed about a possible album marketing strategy. 

The suit claimed that a year later the band said it was unwilling to commit to the producer, planned to bring in its own producers and musicians and wasn’t willing to go “through any type of approval process,” regarding the marketing strategy.

For more details on the story and a look at the filed lawsuit click here.

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