Chris Cornell’s Widow Sues Soundgarden (Again)
Chris Cornell’s widow, Vicky Cornell, is suing the late singer’s Soundgarden bandmates — again.
Vicky and surviving members Kim Thayil (guitar), Ben Shepherd (bass), and Matt Cameron (drums), have been at odds since at least 2019, when Thayil alleged that Cornell’s vocal tracks for the final Soundgarden album were being witheld. Several months later, Vicky sued the band, alleging that they’ve been “withholding hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties owed to her and Chris’ 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 band subsequently countersued, arguing that Cornell wasn’t the sole author of the recordings, and that they should therefore be returned to the band; that they learned about Cornell’s death from Facebook; and that Vicky used revenue from a Chris Cornell charity tribute concert for “personal purposes.” That final part of the countersuit was later dropped.
Now TMZ has obtained legal documents showing that Vicky is suing the band again, this time for lowballing her when negotiating a settlement to buy her out:
“Vicky says the 3 remaining band members offered her just $300k for Chris’ share … an amount she claims is less than what she got for her cut of just the 2018 royalties for Soundgarden’s masters.
“Vicky also alleges the lowball is obvious because the guys in the band got an offer of $16 MILLION from an outside investor for Soundgarden’s masters — that would mean $4 mill each, for the band members and Vicky.”
A rep for Soundgarden counters:
“As requested by the Estate of Chris Cornell and as required by the laws of the State of Washington, the surviving members of Soundgarden submitted to the Cornell Estate four months ago a buy-out offer of the Estate’s interests in Soundgarden calculated by respected music industry valuation expert Gary Cohen.
“Since then, the band members have continued to try to settle all disputes with the Cornell Estate and in their several attempts to settle, the band members have elected to offer multiple times more than the amount calculated by Cohen.
“This dispute has never been about money for the band. This is their life’s work and their legacy.”
No One Sings Like You Anymore, Cornell’s final fully-completed studio album, was released this past December.
