Chris Cornell’s widow is asking a judge to intervene in the proposed buyout of the “Black Hole Sun” singer’s stake in Soundgarden for what she calls the “ludicrously low” amount of $278,000.
In a new lawsuit, Vicky Cornell claims the surviving members of the iconic grunge band are trying to force the sale of her late husband’s “entire interest” in the “Soundgarden partnership” for what she calls a “villainously low” one-time payment of less than $300,000.
She said the surviving band members made their “insulting” offer despite having already received an opening offer from a “leading music investor” to buy “only Soundgarden’s master recordings” for $16 million, her lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Seattle alleges.
“Stated differently, even though the investor had, based on its independent evaluation, made an armslength offer” of $16 million for Soundgarden’s master recordings alone, “defendants deemed less than $300,000 a fair offer for Chris’ interest in all of Soundgarden’s assets,” the filing states.
The lawsuit calls the band’s offer so “paltry,” it doesn’t even amount to the royalties Cornell’s estate received from Soundgarden’s master recordings in 2018 alone.
Vicky Cornell is asking the court to step in and make “a judicial valuation of Chris’ interest” in the band before any deal is struck.
The lawsuit claims the buyout offer ascribes little to no value to future nostalgia-fueled projects, such as “posthumous concert appearances by a hologram of Chris” or future tours with a replacement singer along the lines of what Queen did by substituting Adam Lambert for Freddie Mercury.
Vicky further claims she made a counteroffer to purchase the entire Soundgarden Partnership from the surviving band member for an opening offer of $12 million and a subsequent offer of $21 million but was rebuffed.
In a statement to the Daily News, the band members said Washington state law requires them to make a buyout offer to Cornell’s estate. They said the opening figure they submitted was “calculated by respected music industry valuation expert Gary Cohen.”
“Since then, the band members have continued to try to settle all disputes with the Cornell estate and in their several attempts to settle, the band members have elected to offer multiple times more than the amount calculated by Cohen,” the statement said.
“This dispute has never been about money for the band. This is their life’s work and their legacy,” the statement said.
“The band’s contention that this dispute is somehow not about the money for them is absurd and hypocritical. Of course this is about money and their greed,” lawyer Marty Singer said in a follow-up statement to The News.
“They received a third-party offer to buy just a portion of their interests for $16 million, and yet subsequently offered to buy out Chris’ interest for a mere $278,000,” he said.
He said the band’s decision to turn down Vicky’s offer of $21 million shows they understand “the true value” of the partnership.
Chris Cornell was 52 when he died by suicide in a Detroit hotel room on May 17, 2017, while on tour with Soundgarden.
He left his estate, including his intellectual and personal property rights, to Vicky for the benefit of their two minor children.
