Spencer Elden was four months old when the iconic cover art was taken
The man featured on Nirvana’s iconic Nevermind cover is suing the band, its labels and the photographer for child pornography, 30 years after the album’s release. Spencer Elden has filed a lawsuit in California, claiming the photo of the four month old baby swimming underwater in the nude with his genitalia exposed constitutes child pornography.
The lawsuit, filed by lawyer Robert Y. Lewis, claims the defendants “knowingly produced, possessed, and advertised commercial child pornography depicting Spencer, and they knowingly received value in exchange for doing so.”
Elden claims the defendants “failed to take reasonable steps to protect Spencer and prevent his widespread sexual exploitation and image trafficking” and that Elden has “suffered and will continue to suffer lifelong damages.”
The lawsuit states photographer Kirk Weddle took “a series of sexually graphic nude photographs” of Elden as a four month old at the Pasadena Aquatic Center in Pasadena, CA and activated his “gag reflex” before throwing him into the water to “ensure the album would trigger a visceral sexual response from the viewer.”
Elden says 40 to 50 different sexually graphic images of Elder were produced with a “goal of enhancing and increasing the commercial success of Nirvana, L.L.C.’s Nevermind album.” The suit accuses frontman Kurt Cobain of being “instrumental in selecting Spencer’s image for the album cover” and “chose the image depicting Spencer — like a sex worker— grabbing for a dollar bill that is positioned dangling from a fishhook in front of his nude body with his penis explicitly displayed.”
Cobain agreed to place a sticker strategically over his genitals after receiving pushback from others. The sticker read, “If you’re offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile.” However, the sticker was never incorporated into the album cover and left Elden fully exposed.
The suit accuses Weddle of creating commercial child pornography which “helped propel the Nevermind album to international recognition.” The suit also states that Elden’s “image created massive commercial success for Nirvana, L.L.C. for which Spencer never received any compensation. 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.”
Elden is asking for $150k from each defendant, which includes Weddle, Courtney Love, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Universal Music Group, the David Geffen Co., Warner Music Group, and others responsible for the estate of the late Kurt Cobain.
The album was released in September 1991 and debuted at No. 144 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. It quickly rose in popularity, becoming No. 1 within three months of its release. The RIAA certified the album as platinum just months after its release and was certified diamond for more than 10 million in sales in 1999.
The suit also names Scorpion’s Virgin Killer, Blind Faith’s self titled album and Van Halen’s Balance as other examples of child exploitation.
No defendants have publicly commented on the suit as of press time.
