WTF?! The name Spencer Elden won't exist familiar to well-nigh people, merely they might recognize the photograph of the now thirty-yr-quondam as a baby on the cover of Nirvana'southward Nevermind album. It's one of the about iconic pieces of album art of all fourth dimension, so it'south somewhat surprising to larn that three decades after its release, Elden is suing the band over declared kid pornography.

The Nevermind cover depicts then four-month-quondam Elden naked in a pool equally he tries to catch a dollar bill fastened to a fishing line. He at present says his parents, who were paid $200 for the photo, never signed a release authorizing the use of his image on the anthology and that information technology constitutes child pornography.

Co-ordinate to Variety, Elden's lawyer, Robert Y. Lewis, says that the shot makes the baby appear "like a sex activity worker" and that Elden was exploited to boost the album's sales and increase its attending.

"Defendants intentionally commercially marketed Spencer's child pornography and leveraged the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at his expense," reads the lawsuit. "Defendants used child pornography depicting Spencer every bit an essential element of a record promotion scheme ordinarily utilized in the music industry to go attention, wherein album covers posed children in a sexually provocative fashion to gain notoriety, drive sales, and garner media attention, and disquisitional reviews."

Information technology's also declared that Nirvana had promised to cover Elden'southward genitals with a sticker, but reneged on the agreement.

Elden says his "true identity and legal name are forever tied to the commercial sexual exploitation he experienced as a minor which has been distributed and sold worldwide from the time he was a baby to the present day."

Elden claims to "suffered and will keep to endure lifelong damages" as a outcome of the epitome, including "extreme and permanent emotional distress" along with "interference with his normal development and educational progress" and "medical and psychological handling". He is at present seeking $150,000 from each of 17 named defendants, including surviving ring members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, record executives, photographer Kirk Weddle, and Courtney Love, the sometime wife and executor of Kurt Cobain'southward manor.

Elden recreating the Nevermind album cover. Credit: John Chapple

Elden has previously recreated the image of the Nevermind album for its 10th, 17th, 20th, and 25th anniversaries. He oftentimes expressed mixed feelings towards beingness the "Nirvana baby" in interviews, merely before now never described it as pornographic or exploitative. In a 2022 interview with Time magazine, he said, "Information technology's hard non to get upset when you hear how much money was involved."

"[When] I go to a baseball game and remember about it: 'Man, everybody at this baseball game has probably seen my picayune babe penis,' I feel similar I got part of my human rights revoked."

Conversely, in a 2022 interview with The Guardian, Elden said, "Information technology's ever been a positive matter and opened doors for me." He also has a "Nevermind" tattoo across his chest.