Chris Cornell's Wife Vicky Cornell Sues Soundgarden Over Proposed Buyout Offer
Vicky Cornell, the widow of Chris Cornell, has filed a new lawsuit against the surviving members of Soundgarden, Variety points out. According to court documents viewed by Pitchfork, Vicky Cornell claims that she was offered less than a $300,000 buyout by the band’s remaining members: Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, and Hunter Benedict Shepherd. The complaint, which was filed yesterday (February 16) in a federal court in Seattle, refers to the buyout offer as “a villainously low figure.” Cornell seeks a judicial valuation of Chris Cornell’s interest in Soundgarden’s assets, including merchandise and future touring revenue.
The lawsuit alleges that Soundgarden’s buyout offer was not in good faith and that the proposed figure “does not amount to the royalties that Vicky received from Soundgarden’s master recordings in 2018 alone.” The complaint added that Soundgarden made their buyout offer to Cornell after receiving an offer from a music investor, who offered to purchase Soundgarden’s master recordings alone for $16 million.
Cornell’s complaint states that she was forced to file the lawsuit after making two counter-offers to the band. On December 17, 2020, she counter-offered Thayil, Cameron, and Shepherd $4 million each for their collective interests in Soundgarden. The band subsequently rejected the offer, stating that they had no interest in it “because these interests represent their creative life’s-work.” Cornell then offered each member $7 million, which they rejected.
The suit claims that a good faith valuation would “account for the significant revenues to be earned from the band’s merchandise sales and account for the lucrative, nostalgia-fueled projects that follow the passing of rock and roll icons—e.g., future tours using a replacement lead singer (as Queen did by substituting Adam Lambert for Freddie Mercury); posthumous concert appearances by a hologram of Chris (as Tupac Shakur, Michael Jackson, and Elvis Presley have profitably performed); and deep-fake renditions of Chris’ vocals drawn from extant recordings by artificial intelligence thatcould mint brand new Soundgarden hits.”
https://pitchfork.com/news/chris-cornells-wife-vicky-cornell-sues-soundgarden-over-proposed-buyout-offer/
