Soundgarden band members and Vicky Cornell are currently in a pretty sticky legal battle over Chris Cornell’s social media passwords.
As reported by Billboard, the remaining Soundgarden members, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, Ben Shepherd and their business manager Rit Venerus have filed legal papers at the U.S. District Court in Washington earlier this month, requesting that a judge is brought in in an attempt to settle the matter..
In what is now officially a legal battle, sees Vicky Cornell allegedly changing passwords and locking the Soundgarden band members out of social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vimeo, YouTube, Snapchat, Tumblr, Top Spin and Pinterest accounts.
Not only those, but Soundgarden’s official website as well.
The band members are requesting that the judge orders her to hand over the passwords or to make a post which states, “Soundgarden has temporarily suspended its official social media accounts due to pending litigation.”
While the issue of social media ownership has only recently become a legal dispute, Vicky has actually been involved in legal matters with the band ever since the tragic death of her husband back in 2017.
As per Billboard, Chris the rights to his property, both intellectual and personal all to his wife and kids. Then two years later in 2019, Vicky also reportedly filed a lawsuit against the band, where she requested to become the “rightful owner of her husband’s unreleased recordings and of his name and likeness.”
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In her list of demands, she also requested that the court order the band to “open their financial books to her and to provide her with an inventory of all Chris’ personal property”. She’s also alleged that the band has been “withholding hundreds of thousands of dollars from her.”
There have been no further updates on the matter and a hearing as per the band’s request is scheduled for April 16th.
For more on this topic, follow the Classic Rock Observer.
Watch the music video for ‘Black Hole Sun’ by Soundgarden.
