Metal Anarchy

Earlier this year, Soundgarden filed a countersuit against Chris Cornell’s widow Vicky, accusing her and Chris’ estate of “fraudulent inducement.” As part of the suit, the band claimed that their January 16, 2019 set at the Chris Cornell tribute show was done for free to benefit charity, but Vicky allegedly never provided them with a full list of donations and that she used the money for personal gain. However, that claim has since been dropped.

Vicky’s attorney Marty Singer told The Hollywood Reporter the following:

“When we threatened Soundgarden with the undisputed facts that their claims concerning Vicky Cornell and the Cornell Charitable Foundation were disgraceful and fabricated by requesting the court sanction them for their appalling conduct, they caved in and agreed to drop their claims. We were looking forward to having the court make Soundgarden and their attorneys accountable for their shameful conduct, but they instead backed off their meritless claims since they knew they would lose the Rule 11 motion, which is used in court to punish and deter parties and their attorneys from pursuing objectively frivolous claims.”

Last December, Vicky filed a lawsuit against the band over royalties and the rights to seven unreleased tracks. She claimed that the group 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 then went on to accuse 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 denied Vicky’s accusations, while claiming that Chris co-authored five of the recordings with other members of the band. In addition to that, they also made the aforementioned claims about the Chris Cornell tribute show and said that they were unhappy with the way Vicky was representing them on their social media accounts. The group were also seeking a trial so they can settle the dispute.