The remaining members of SOUNDGARDEN have previously accused Chris Cornell‘s widow, Vicky Cornell of denying them access to band’s website and social media accounts.
Last month, official court papers filed in Washington D.C. saw band members Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd, as well as their business manager Rit Venerus, accuse Cornell of locking them out of their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vimeo, YouTube, Snapchat, Tumblr, Top Spin and Pinterest accounts, as well as band’s official website.
Lawsuit also states that Cornell gained control of the accounts from their previous management team, Patriot Management. She is accused of leaving the accounts in “a state of neglect” and failing to update fans about the latest SOUNDGARDEN developments.
On Thursday, Chris Cornell‘s Instagram shared a story with a statement from the late singer’s former manager Ron Laffitte in which he wrote: “During my six years working with Chris Cornell and SOUNDGARDEN, Chris and Vicky always controlled all of SOUNDGARDEN‘s social media accounts, both directly and through their own personal social media representative. At no time were any other members of SOUNDGARDEN involved, and this was true both before and after Chris died. Because of this, SOUNDGARDEN‘s attempt to seek an injunction in connection with the social media accounts is surprising to say the least.”
In a separate story on Chris‘s Instagram was another statement from Vicky‘s lawyer, Marty Singer, which reads: “Ms. Cornell‘s forthcoming motion will expose the truth about SOUNDGARDEN‘s supposed social media accounts. Ms. Cornell created the social media accounts; grew the accounts by allowing them to trade on Chris‘ then-existing, popular accounts; devoted her personal time and money in growing these accounts as SOUNDGARDEN displayed absolutely no interest in social media (unless it was to promote their solo projects). Ms. Cornell has overseen these accounts for close to a decade. The fact that SOUNDGARDEN is unaware of the user-names and passwords for their alleged ‘own’ accounts confirms their utter lack of involvement in creating, growing and maintaining their alleged accounts.
“SOUNDGARDEN solely wants the social media accounts in order to maliciously defame Ms. Cornell, provoke her online stalkers (as Matt Cameron has done continuously) and to instigate third-parties to harass Ms. Cornell and her minor children. Moreover, while they now claim a sense of urgency, SOUNDGARDEN‘s claim are a stale repacking of the claims that they filed in the Florida court in May of 2020.”
