Late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell’s widow Vicky has posted her first tweet since surviving Soundgarden members Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, and Ben Shepherd filed a new lawsuit against her and the Chris Cornell estate, accusing them of “fraudulent inducement” for allegedly using money intended to be raised for charity for “personal purposes for herself and her family,” according to a lawsuit obtained by Rolling Stone.
Much of the lawsuit is based around Soundgarden performing at the ‘I Am The Highway’ Chris Cornell tribute show in Los Angeles in January 2019, with the band claiming they performed with the assumption that money from the show would go to charity, with the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation mentioned. Vicky and Soundgarden are also in litigation over the band’s unfinished final album and royalty payments.
Vicky tweeted, “You were so wrong to think you’d silence me by lies, intimidation and fear. That you might break me because its a gutwrenching time. He is always with me and you can’t change the truth by lying and for what to stir up crazies and legitimize them while attacking CC’s legacy…”
The lawsuit alleges the “recipient(s) of the revenue” from 2019 Chris Cornell benefit concert “have not been identified.” Soundgarden’s lawyers claim the show ‘is believed to have raised many millions of dollars.’
Soundgarden’s lawsuit also states, “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.”
Vicky Cornell’s lawyer Marty Singer called the claims in the lawsuit “salacious, scurrilous, and vicious.” “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,” he said in a statement.
Singer also alleged that the band received $78,000 to perform at the 2019 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,” he added.
The lawsuit also discusses ownership of Soundgarden’s social media accounts, with allegations that fans were blocked from commenting without the band having authority over the accounts.
You were so wrong to think you’d silence me by lies, intimidation and fear. That you might break me because its a gutwrenching time. He is always with me and you can’t change the truth by lying and for what to stir up crazies and legitimize them while attacking CC’s legacy…
— Vicky Cornell (@vickycornell) May 7, 2020
