The man who was photographed as an infant and pasted on the cover of legendary grunge group Nirvana’s hit 1991 Nevermind album has sued the defunct band, alleging the nude picture constitutes child pornography.
Spencer Elden, now 30, filed the complaint in a Los Angeles federal court on Tuesday and seeks monetary damages from band members over the photo that shows a then-infant Elden naked in a swimming pool approaching a dollar bill on a fishhook.
Elden’s complaint argued the photo depicts him reaching for the bill “like a sex worker” and said the band “added a fishhook specifically to make the image more menacing,” adding that his image on the seminal album cover caused him physical, psychological, financial, and reputational harm.
Elden further cited the album’s extraordinary success and said the record company which put out the record “intentionally commercially marketed Spencer’s child pornography and leveraged the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at his expense.”
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“Defendants used child pornography depicting Spencer as an essential element of a record promotion scheme commonly utilized in the music industry to get attention, wherein album covers posed children in a sexually provocative manner to gain notoriety, drive sales, and garner media attention, and critical reviews,” the suit said.
The lawsuit also argued the defendants never obtained legal authorization of the image. His parents were paid $200 for the photo, according to Variety.
“Neither Spencer nor his legal guardians ever signed a release authorizing the use of any images of Spencer or of his likeness, and certainly not of commercial child pornography depicting him,” the lawsuit said.
Defendants served in the suit include surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and former drummer Chad Channing, as well as Cobain’s estate and his widow, Courtney Love.
Kirk Weddle, the photographer who snapped the picture, is also listed, as are the record companies involved with the album. The suit seeks $150,000 from each of them, as well as the cost of attorney’s fees.
Elden had previously leaned into his connection to the album, which features the hits “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “In Bloom,” and he got a tattoo of the Nevermind emblem on his chest.
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He also reenacted the image as an adult on multiple occasions, including for the album’s 25th anniversary in 2016.
“The anniversary means something to me. It’s strange that I did this for five minutes when I was 4 months old and it became this really iconic image,” he said at the time, also adding, “It’s cool but weird to be part of something so important that I don’t even remember.”
