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The surviving members of Soundgarden released a new statement regarding the lawsuit that Chris Cornell’s widow, Vicky Cornell, opened in Washington last week.
“The purchase offer required by the Estate has been grossly out of character and we are confident that clarity will come in court,” says the statement by Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd. “All offers to buy our shares were unsolicited and immediately rejected. For more than a year, Soundgarden’s social media accounts have been hijacked; deceiving and confusing our fans. Having been a Washington state band since 1984, we are proud of Soundgarden’s musical legacy, work and career. We are looking forward to completing the final Soundgarden album. “
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In the lawsuit filed at the United States District Court in the Western District of Washington, Cornell says that the surviving members offered her “the villainously low amount of less than $ 300,000”, despite having allegedly received an offer of $ 16,000,000 from one external musical investor for Soundgarden’s master recordings.
At the time of his death, Cornell was partnered with his Soundgarden bandmates. According to the lawsuit, Cornell says she sent a letter of demand to the surviving members of the band to buy her late husband’s holdings in Soundgarden and related entities.
In response to what Cornell considers the band’s “insincere offer”, she says she presented a $ 4,000,000 counter offer to each surviving member of the band for their collective interests in Soundgarden and related entities, an offer that was allegedly rejected . Cornell says that surviving members also rejected his $ 7,000,000 follow-up offer each.
“As requested by the Chris Cornell Estate and as required by Washington State laws, surviving Soundgarden members submitted to the Cornell Estate four months ago an offer to buy the Estate’s holdings in Soundgarden calculated by the respected music industry specialist Gary Cohen assessment, ”members said on Wednesday in response to the lawsuit.
Cornell and the surviving members of Soundgarden have been litigating in federal court since 2019, when Cornell filed a lawsuit alleging that they are improperly withholding royalty money due to Cornell’s property in an attempt to force Vicky Cornell to deliver seven previously unreleased recordings by Chris Cornell in 2017 before he died.
ROTATE contacted Vicky Cornell representatives for comment.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report
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