Soundgarden singer’s widow files suit in Miami against his band. They want a change in venue
UPDATE: Soundgarden band members filed a motion in Florida’s Southern District Court to have Vicky Cornell’s suit against the band dismissed or transferred to a district court in Washington. The motion, filed on Feb. 3, 2020, says having the decision based out of Florida — where Cornell had a home — is an improper venue since the band is based in Seattle.
“We don’t have possession of our own creative work,” Soundgarden members Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Hunter Benedict Shepherd said in a statement issued by their publicist, Larry Solters.
When one hears the name Chris Cornell and that of the band he fronted, Soundgarden, the geographical area that comes to mind is Seattle.
Soundgarden, along with Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Mother Love Bone, was integral to the whole “Seattle Sound” that upended popular music in the 1990s much the way Laurel Canyon did in the late 1960s.
But on Monday, Cornell’s widow, Vicky Cornell, filed suit in Miami federal court against his bandmates, alleging that they are withholding royalties that should be going to his estate because they want to use unreleased recordings he recorded at his home studio in South Florida.
Cornell had a home in Miami Beach.
Cornell died on May 17, 2017, after performing in concert with Soundgarden at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. He was found hanging in his hotel room after the show. His immediate survivors include his wife, their two children, and his daughter from a previous marriage.
Lawsuit names Soundgarden members
Vicky Cornell’s suit names Soundgarden members Kim Thayil, the group’s lead guitarist from its founding in 1984, drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd. The suit alleges “disgraceful conduct” by the band members after his death.
The suit also names the band’s business manager, Rit Venerus, and his financial firm, Cal Financial Group, which is based in Illinois.
In her suit, Cornell lobs an opening volley by citing the lyrics of “Sweet Revenge,” a song her husband released on his third solo album, “Scream,” in 2009. He wrote the lyrics during a period of inter-band turmoil — not uncommon in the big stakes rock industry. Soundgarden had split in the late-1990s before reforming in the late-2000s.
“Everybody out for my blood, everybody want my percent …/They just want to take what is mine, how much more can they get.”
“In 2009, Chris Cornell penned these lyrics about his former Soundgarden bandmates after they unlawfully (and unsuccessfully) attempted to deprive him of his rights in connection with the valuable musical works that he created for the band. Ten years later, and after Chris’ untimely passing, these lyrics hauntingly resonate as his former bandmates, once again, have attempted to ‘take what is his’ — or, more aptly, to steal from his widow and minor children,” Cornell’s suit claims.
According to the suit, Chris Cornell recorded seven songs at his Miami Beach home studio for personal use in 2017. The songs contain his vocals and were bequeathed to his estate for the benefit of his widow and their minor children.
Band’s legal team says widow is not a partner
Soundgarden’s members haven’t publicly responded to the suit.
But Rimon Law, a firm representing the band and with numerous offices — including locations in Coral Gables and Seattle — responded to the suit via email and Federal Express and their letter is attached to the complaint.
Rimon’s letter, signed by attorney Ray Garcia, acknowledged that the seven recordings were stored on at least one laptop’s hard drive that was in Chris Cornell’s possession when he died. But the firm said the music files he had been working on — five of which bear co-songwriting credits to either Thayil, Cameron or Shepherd — were “a collaborative effort with the other members of Soundgarden, and the entire band was feeling very positive about their rekindled artistic energy and creative.”
Only two songs, “Cancer” and “Stone Age Mind” carry a sole Cornell authorship, according to Rimon’s response to the suit.
The band’s legal team contends the music content on these recordings “constitutes Soundgarden partnership property” and that Vicky Cornell, according to Washington law, is not a partner in Soundgarden so has none of the partnership rights the band enjoys.
Vicky Cornell disagrees.
“Vicky long ago offered to share the sound recordings with the band, provided that they were released in a way that would respect her late husband’s legacy and wishes,” her suit says. “The band refused, however, on the absurd contention that the recordings are somehow the sole property of their purported partnership and that they (despite not creating the sound recordings) are somehow entitled to unilaterally dictate how the recordings should be exploited.
“After rejecting Vicky’s offer to share Chris’ recordings according to Chris’ wishes, the [band and business management] resorted to strong-arm tactics by withholding royalties undeniably owed to Chris’ estate,” the suit alleges.
Cornell loved Miami’s heat
In 2016, a year before his death, Chris Cornell told the Tampa Bay Times what he liked about living in South Florida.
“If you look at the continental U.S., it’s as far away as you could possibly get,” he told the newspaper. “It’s not something I would have guessed I would have liked, in terms of the heat and the humidity, and it turns out that I really do. After being here for a couple of weeks, I thought, I could really get used to it.”
Vicky Cornell wants damages to be determined at trial and to be declared sole and exclusive owner of the seven recordings. She also demands a jury trial.
She is being represented by Pryor Cashman law firm on South Biscayne Boulevard in Miami and Lavely & Singer Professional Corporation in Los Angeles.
Widow’s Instagram post
Rolling Stone, which reported on the suit Monday, was tipped to an Instagram post Cornell’s widow posted that said women being exploited at a time of such vulnerability is shockingly common and not exclusive to “rock star widows.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 12:14 PM.
