Temple Of The Dog tapes in legal row

The master tapes of grunge supergroup Temple Of The Dog’s 1991 album are at the centre of a legal battle.

Label A&M wants Rajan Parashar, co-founder of Seattle’s London Bridge Studios, to hand over the recordings. They came into his possession on the death of his brother Rick, who produced the album that features Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron, plus Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready and Jeff Ament.

The Seattle Times reports that Rick failed to respond to a number of requests from A&M to hand over the tapes before his death.

In their lawsuit, the label say they “believed the artists to be in possession of the master recordings.” But they were later told the Parashar brothers had them.

Rajan’s lawyer Warren Rheaume responds: “He’s had them all along. They’re his.”

The legal papers claim Rick produced the album on a verbal agreement, but signed a deal in 1993 to turn over the recordings and all rights in exchange for $35,000.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.