SEATTLE (AP) – Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell said Tuesday that the co-founder of a famed Seattle recording studio has no legitimate claim to own the master tapes of a defining album of the grunge era – “Temple of the Dog,” which Cornell recorded with Eddie Vedder and other members of Pearl Jam in 1990.
A&M records sued Raj Parashar, who founded London Bridge Studios with his brother, in March, demanding that Parashar turn over the master tapes. The label says it bought the album – and the master tapes – in 1991. In a statement issued Tuesday, Cornell agreed.
“A&M Records paid for the recordings and the use of the studio,” he said. For Parashar “to pretend he has a right to keep the recordings makes no more sense than the owner of a laundromat claiming he owns the clothes you washed in his washing machine.”
A&M didn’t say in its complaint why it wants the master recordings, but such tapes can be used in re-issuing albums. Next year marks the album’s 25th anniversary.
Parashar’s lawyer, Warren Rheaume, said Tuesday that his client does in fact own the tapes. Raj Parashar helped engineer the album’s production, was never paid for his efforts, and was not part of an agreement that his brother reached with the label in 1993, Rheaume said.