In December 2008, Chris Cornell reported via his official website that he had finally won back his collection of 15 guitars after a four-year court battle with his ex-wife. Cornell divorced Susan Silver, who managed his former band Soundgarden in 2004 but the pair remained locked in a bitter dispute over his musical instruments, which was finally resolved through the courts this year.
Cornell was particularly happy about one of the guitars returned (a 90’s Gold Sparkle Gretsch Duo Jet), he said,
“(It’s) the Gretsch I played in the Black Hole Sun video (pictured below). I wrote the song thinking the band wouldn’t like it – then it became the biggest hit of the summer.”
Cornell wrote on his official website,
“Speaking of guitars. I was just dusting off the 15 or so guitars that I recently had returned to me after the end of a very long lawsuit where someone had decided that maybe the tools of my trade and guitars I played on my entire catalogue should be in their possession forever. It seems to me that some strangely desperate people involved in the music business forget that they are not the ones that write these songs, spill their guts and expose themselves to the public on the most personal level. We invent this s%*t and f*&king own it and no matter what, nothing will change that.”
Here are some photos of Chris Cornell & Susan Silver in happier times…
That wasn’t Chris Cornell’s messy public feud. Click the link or photo below to relive the bitter 2009 Cornell vs. Trent Reznor rivalry.
I love you Chris everything you did in your life was inspiring for me.
I am so glad you got your guitars back, justice has been done, pretty much. You didn’t deserve that but hey, at least you have your wife your kids and us YOUR FANS! who always will love you. You will always be my favorite vocalist/songwriter/human being. I love you and it was simply LEGENDARY touching your hands in your freaking unbeliveble show in Israel!
Some special shirt made by me was thrown to the stage with SG sings (90, SG, your signature) and let’s hope I will have the 5 minutes in the future to ask you couple questions I always wanted to ask you.