The surviving members of Soundgarden have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against them by Chris Cornell's widow, Vicky.
It's been over a month since news surfaced that Chris Cornell's widow, Vicky, was suing the surviving members of Soundgarden, and now the band have broken their silence on the situation, filing a motion to dismiss it.
The lawsuit implies hundreds of thousands of dollars in alleged missing royalties, as well as the rights to seven unreleased recordings by the late singer, but Chris' bandmates – Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd – have today (January 4) filed a motion to dismiss it.
“We don’t have possession of our own creative work,” the band claim, before adding: “Vicky Cornell has possession of the only existing multi-track recordings of the last Soundgarden tracks that include Chris Cornell’s instrumental parts and vocals. All of the band members jointly worked on these final tracks, Vicky now claims ownership of the final Soundgarden album.” This new motion claims that Vicky has previously referred to these unreleased Chris Cornell recordings as the "SG files", and that this material was being worked on collaboratively all the way back in 2015.
They also address an allegation made by Vicky that Kim, Matt and Ben were "uncaring following Cornell's death", to which they provide an extremely sad explanation of where they were following their final show before Chris' passing:
"Following the concert — as was customary — Thayil, Cameron, and Shepherd (the “Surviving Band Members” or “Remaining Partners”) made the late night trip in the Band’s tour buses to their next concert destination in Columbus, Ohio, where the Band had a concert on May 19. Cornell stayed behind at a Detroit hotel with the plan to fly on to Columbus, as was his normal practice because Cornell was unable to sleep on buses. As their buses were headed to Columbus in the early morning of May 18, the Surviving Band Members learned that Cornell had been found dead in his hotel room in Detroit after midnight (tragically, Cameron first saw a “RIP: Chris Cornell” item on his Facebook page, called Thayil who was on the other bus, who then woke Shepherd, and they and their crew frantically searched news, social media and called friends and family, until they received the awful confirmation from their tour manager).
"Thayil, Cameron and Shepherd were utterly devastated to lose their beloved friend, brother, and comrade, and were in a state of shock. As they pulled their buses to the roadside, embraced each other, and struggled with what to do next, their tour manager advised them not to go back to Detroit as it would be swimming with police, press, and other media, and there was nothing positive that could be achieved."
As well as holding a private vigil in Columbus, cancelling Soundgarden's U.S. tour and giving eulogies at Chris' memorial service, the motion adds that, "the Surviving Band Members have offered consistent support to Cornell’s widow, Vicky Cornell (then Vicky Karayiannis), and Cornell’s three children."
Read the full motion now via Rolling Stone.
