Vicky Cornell, her lawyer, and a former band manager have all hit back at the remaining members of Soundgarden following the filing of legal papers earlier this week demanding Vicky relinquish the band’s social media and website passwords.
The surviving band members claim that Vicky has let Soundgarden’s social media pages fall into disrepair. They said they’ve been locked out of the various social media accounts ever since go-between company Patriot Management gave Vicky the passwords in late 2019. It’s the latest in a long-running legal dispute between the Chris Cornell estate and Soundgarden.
In a statement posted on the official Chris Cornell Instagram Stories, former manager Ron Lafitte’s appeared to side with Vicky Cornell’s camp:
“During my six years working with Chris Cornell and Soundgarden, Chris and Vicky always controlled all of Soundgarden‘s social media accounts, both directly and through their own personal social media representative. At no time were any other members of Soundgarden involved, and this was true both before and after Chris died. Because of this, Soundgarden‘s attempt to seek an injunction in connection with the social media accounts is surprising to say the least.”
Vicky’s lawyer, Marty Singer, seconded Lafitte’s understanding of events, stating that Vicky had been “growing” the band’s social media accounts for some time, and even accusing the band members of trying to “defame” Vicky and “harass” her children:
“Ms. Cornell’s forthcoming motion will expose the truth about the Soundgarden‘s supposed social media accounts. Ms. Cornell created the social media accounts; grew the accounts by allowing them to trade on Chris‘ then-existing, popular accounts; devoted her personal time and money in growing these accounts as Soundgarden displayed absolutely no interest in social media (unless it was to promote their solo projects). Ms. Cornell has overseen these accounts for close to a decade. The fact that Soundgarden is unaware of the user-names and passwords for their alleged ‘own’ accounts confirms their utter lack of involvement in creating, growing and maintaining their alleged accounts.
Soundgarden solely wants the social media accounts in order to maliciously defame Ms. Cornell, provoke her online stalkers (as Matt Cameron has done continuously) and to instigate third-parties to harass Ms. Cornell and her minor children.
Moreover, while they now claim a sense of urgency, Soundgarden‘s claim are a stale repacking of the claims that they filed in the Florida court in May of 2020.”
Finally, Vicky Cornell herself posted a statement in an Instagram Story, claiming the band is now seeking further legal action against her use of the “no one sings like you anymore” hashtag — taken from Chris Cornell’s lyrics to “Black Hole Sun” (and also the title of a recent posthumous solo album). She posted:
“Sadly the other three Soundgarden members now object to a celebration of Chris‘ voice even as they take legal action to demand the use of his vocals.
In their latest attacks they claim to be against the “no one sings like you anymore” hashtag — even though that was taken from Chris‘ lyrics from “Black Hole Sun” that was created and used by fans all over the world as a mark of respect and in tribute to him since the day after he died.
My children and I are so grateful to the fans for the love and respect you have all shown to him and thereby us since that tragic night.”
As The PRP pointed out, a seperate Instagram story on Vicky Cornell’s account (also shared on Chris Cornell’s account) yesterday, April 1st, saw the use of the #noonesingslikeyouanymore and #thatswhytheywantyourvocals hashtags.
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The legal saga began with the initial lawsuit on December 9th, 2019. Vicky Cornell sued Soundgarden over unreleased recordings, among other matters. They would eventually countersue Vicky in May of last year. Then, earlier this February, Vicky sued Soundgarden again — in another separate case — over a buyout price for Chris’ share of the band. She claimed the band offered just $300,000 for what she estimates is at least a $4 million share, if not more.
Soungarden’s latest filing will heard by Washington state courts on April 16th.