Music created by the band Nirvana has been able to find fans in nearly every generation! And the cover of their 1991 album Nevermind has become one of the most recognizable.
If you’re having a hard time recalling the album art, it depicts a naked baby submerged underwater looking at a dollar bill that is also floating under the water. Now, the man, who was once the baby featured on the Album covered is making himself known, CNN reports.
Baby Featured on Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ Album Is Suing the Band
Spencer Elden is now 30 years old and has come forward as the man the baby on the cover grew up to be. Elden is also suing Nirvana over alleged child sexual exploitation and pornography, NPR reports. Elden said that “the band knowingly distributed the naked photo of Elden as a baby and profited from it.”
According to CNN, the complaint was formally filed on Tuesday, August 24. In the complaint, Elden’s lawyers say “image was pornographic and that Elden has suffered ‘lifelong damages’ as a result of his involvement.”
Elden said in the complaint that he was sexualized due to the dollar bill also seen in the image. The complaint states the dollar bill made the baby remind one of a “sex worker.”
According to CNN, while Elden has, in the past, expressed his discomfort with how popular the album cover became, he has also recreated the image multiple times as an adult. He once told the Sunday Times that it is “kind of creepy that many people have seen me naked … I feel like the world’s biggest porn star.”
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It was further revealed in the lawsuit that the photographer Kirk Weddle was a friend of Elden’s father and accuses Weddle of producing a “sexually graphic” photo of the child. The documents also state that there was “push back” over featuring Elden’s genitals on the cover, and a sticker was supposed to be placed over them in the image. “The sticker, however, was never incorporated into the album cover,” the suit states.
Elden and his lawyers listed the surviving band members, the executors of lead singer Kurt Cobain’s estate, which is Cobain’s wife, Courtney Love, the photographer Kirk Weddle, and various record labels, such as Universal Music, Geffen Records, Warner Records, and MCA Music, as defendants, NPR reports. He further alleges that all of the defendants “knowingly produced, possessed, and advertised commercial child pornography.”
He is now seeking $150,000 in damages from each of the defendants for an unknown total amount, CNN reports.
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