Metal Anarchy

According to Rolling Stone, Soundgarden have filed a countersuit against Chris Cornell’s widow Vicky, accusing her and Chris’ estate of “fraudulent inducement.” This news comes after the band recently responded to a lawsuit Vicky filed against them over royalties and the rights to seven unreleased tracks.

Vicky previously said that the band have been withholding money in an “unlawful attempt to strong-arm Chris’ Estate into turning over certain audio recordings” that she claimed Chris wrote alone while living in Florida. She also said that she offered to share the tracks with Soundgarden if they respected Chris’ wishes by releasing them in a certain way and having his producer involved, but they allegedly refused. Vicky also accused guitarist Kim Thayil of putting her and her family in danger by suggesting that she is preventing the release of a new Soundgarden album.

For their part, Soundgarden claimed that Chris co-authored five of the recordings with other members of the band. Furthermore, they have since claimed that their January 16, 2019 set at the Chris Cornell tribute show was done for free to benefit charity, but Vicky never provided them with a full list of donations. They alleged that “Vicky Cornell did not have the intention of using some or all of the revenue from the Cornell Concert for charitable purposes, but rather for personal purposes for herself and her family.”

The countersuit also further dismissed Vicky‘s previous accusations:

“The Complaint is an offensive recitation of false allegations and accusations. Soundgarden categorically denies every material contention lobbed by Vicky Cornell, who filed her Complaint — rashly and without good cause — with the true purpose of extorting Soundgarden into conceding rights to which she is not legally entitled, and of coercing Soundgarden to prematurely distribute Soundgarden funds to her.”

On top of that, Soundgarden have also taken issue with Vicky having access to their social media accounts and the way she is representing them. The group are currently seeking a trial to settle the dispute.

Vicky’s lawyer Marty Singer has since issued a statement to Rolling Stone about the band’s 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.”

Vicky also commented herself via Instagram Stories:

“As my beloved Chris would say, ‘They’ve reached a whole new low.’ A very easily disproven one…”

“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…”

“Times are gone for honest men and sometimes too far along for snakes… #noonesingslikeyouanymore”

“PS -yes- I had to be there, his children and his family had to be there -at the event I organized and made happen in honor and in tribute to the greatest husband and father -in honor of his legacy, his music and philanthropy

#ChrisCornellForever”

“#truthalwaysprevails

All monies in and out of foundations are public information -everyone is aware the event took place in Jan 2019- that means you purposely added this bogus claim knowing that 1040s not even due yet…

Be prepared to stand behind your accusation. You have played dirty this entire time…You can pretend publicly but you go to bed knowing what he’d think and do…. But I guess, sadly, I finally understand, it does explain why you didn’t turn the bus around.”