The members of Soundgarden have responded to Vicky Cornell’s suit claiming they were withholding royalties in an attempt to have her turn over “audio recordings created by Chris Cornell before he passed away.”

The filing from Matt Cameron, Ben Shepherd and Kim Thayil’s legal team says that “all of the band members are also owed monies, but none of the band members nor [Vicky] will be paid until expenses are paid and the partnership shares of earnings can be calculated and distributed.”

They add that Vicky Cornell has possession of “the only existing multi-track recordings of the last Soundgarden tracks that include Chris Cornell’s instrumental parts and vocals. All of the band members jointly worked on these final tracks. Vicky now claims ownership of the final Soundgarden album.” The filing spells out the writing credits for the seven tracks in question, five of which were co-writes between Chris Cornell and other band members.

The filing also states, “The complaint alleges that the band members behaved callously at the time of Chris Cornell’s death. This is patently false and emotionally abusive.”