Exclusive
TMZ/Getty Composite
Chris Cornell‘s former bandmates are taking a stand against his widow … insisting she’s got the wrong idea about who owns a bunch of unreleased Soundgarden tunes.
Soundgarden is responding to Vicky Cornell‘s lawsuit, filed last year … claiming ownership of 7 tracks she says she found on Chris’ laptop after his death — but the band says … not so fast!
In new docs, they acknowledge there are unreleased songs but say they — as a band — had been working on them as far back as 2014. As evidence, they point to a February 2017 article where Chris himself spoke to Music Radar about Soundgarden’s new material. He said, “We have a lot of interesting songs.”
The operative word there being, “We” … according to the band. According to the docs, Soundgarden got together in the studio in April 2017 to do more work on the songs. They acknowledge they took a break from polishing the songs later that month … to go on tour.
It was during that tour, in May 2017, that Chris killed himself by hanging in a Detroit hotel.
Further, Soundgarden say they’ve corresponded with Vicky about the songs, and she’s admitted they were the band’s property … not just Chris’ solo work.
They also think she’s filed her lawsuit in the wrong court — a federal court in Florida — because the band is based in Seattle. Therefore, they’re asking a judge to dismiss Vicky’s lawsuit or, at least, force her to refile in the proper district.