The famous naked baby on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind album back in 1991, Spencer Elden has sued the band for child pornography.
The baby who was 4 months old at that time has filed a lawsuit against Nirvana and the Kurt Cobain estate allegedly claiming that they “trafficked” his photo across the globe and has filed for $2.5 million compensation for the damage he incurred for “being exploited as a minor.”
According to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court, Spencer Elden’s parents never gave consent to the group to use his pictures and they were never paid for the photos as well. The lawsuit claim is contradictory to the reports published in 2008, in which the photographer of the picture, Kirk Weddie, had claimed to have paid Elden’s father $200 for the 15 seconds in which the photos were taken.
Spencer Elden stated,
Spencer Elden has nominated 17 defendants in his lawsuit including Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl; the band members of Nirvana along with Kurt Cobain’s as well as the executor of the estate of Cobain, Heather Parry, and Guy Oseary.
Elden nominated various other people such as the photographer Kirk Weddie and the art director Robert Fisher along with all the record companies which released and distributed the nevermind album in the last 30 years. He is asking for approximately $150,000 from each of the nominated people.
Elden stated that all the
For the record, the said image which made the cover of Nirvana’s album was shot in 1990 at Pasadena aquatic center and the late singer Kurt Cobain picked out this particular image himself to showcase his album. In the photo, a naked baby can be seen swimming in the water while trying to capture a dollar bill attached with a string.
Spencer Elden’s attorneys have stated,
For the record, Nirvana’s Nevermind album sold out approximately 30 million copies to date and won a Grammy for the single “Feels Like teen spirit.”
