Vicky Cornell: Unheard Soundgarden Music ‘Will See The Light Of Day’
Vicky Cornell said in a new interview that all of Chris Cornell’s unreleased music, including unheard music from Soundgarden, will eventually be released.
Speaking with USA Today, Vicky Cornell said, “Yes. All of Chris’ music, including Soundgarden, will see the light of day because there’s nothing in the world that lifts me most than sharing Chris’ gifts, having people speak his name, and having his music out there.”
She continued, “He’s alive that way and his legacy lives on. So it’s the most important thing to me, seeing how much people love him, miss him, respect him, and how much we want more of his music out there. So everything will be released.”
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Vicky Cornell and the surviving members of Soundgarden were engaged in a legal battle this past year over some of Chris Cornell’s recordings. In December 2019, Vicky Cornell filed a lawsuit accusing the band of withholding “hundreds of thousands of dollars” worth of royalties in an “unlawful attempt to strong-arm Chris’ estate into turning over certain audio recordings created by Chris before he passed away.”
These recordings have been talked about publicly by guitarist Kim Thayil multiple times, with him saying in a November 2019 during an interview, “We definitely have another record in us. Stuff that’s written, stuff that’s demoed and recorded — certainly. All it would need is to take the audio files that are available…There shouldn’t be [issues getting the record done] — there really isn’t — other than the fact that we don’t have those files… And I think that will happen. It would be ridiculous if it didn’t. But these are difficult things — partnerships and property.” Vicky Cornell has accused Thayil of “putting her family in harm’s way” by suggesting she’s being difficult regarding these demos.
In February 2020, Soundgarden responded to Vicky Cornell’s lawsuit claiming that recordings being withheld are actually the property of the band. They also denied Cornell’s claim the band was withholding any royalties and state they haven’t received any royalties either until “the Partnership, by vote of the Remaining Partners, formally elects to make such a distribution.”
In May 2020, Soundgarden filed another countersuit against Vicky Cornell and the estate of Chris Cornell “accusing them of ‘fraudulent inducement’ for allegedly using revenue intended to be raised for charity for ‘personal purposes for herself and her family.'” The band would drop this lawsuit in July.
At the time of publishing, no member of Soundgarden has commented on Vicky Cornell’s remarks in her interview with USA Today.
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