Baby pictured on 'Nevermind' album cover sues Nirvana for child pornography

Elden demands at least $150,000 from each of the defendants. 

 "Nevermind" album cover by Nirvana (photo credit: FLICKR)
"Nevermind" album cover by Nirvana
(photo credit: FLICKR)

"It's fun to lose and to pretend" might be in everyone's thoughts, as the baby that was featured on the cover of Nirvana's famous "Nevermind" album, now grown-up, is suing the band, Kurt Cobain's estate, as well as Cobain's widow Courtney Love for child pornography, multiple media sources reported on Wednesday. 

Other defendants include photographer Kirk Weddle and art director Robert Fisher. 

The baby, who is now 30-year-old Spencer Elden, alleges that he has been caused "lifelong suffering by 'trafficking' his image worldwide," by the band, the art directors, and record labels, according to CBS Los Angeles.

Elden demands at least $150,000 from each of the defendants. 

Elden also stated that his “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 also stated that neither he nor his guardians consented to the naked photoshoot, according to the lawsuit. The suit also stated that in addition to being sexually graphic, it makes Elden resemble “a sex worker – grabbing for a dollar bill.”

He also claims that he was "forced to engage in 'commercial sex acts,' and that the band went back on an alleged promise to conceal his genitals on the album cover," according to the New York Post

Fice years ago, Elden recreated the cover as an homage to Nirvana's album, the Post also reported. 

The famous image in question captures Elden when he was a baby, swimming naked in a pool chasing after a $1 bill attached to a fish hook while his genitalia is exposed. The Guardian reported that Elden was said to be four years old at the time the iconic photograph was taken.

Elden said that he never received compensation for the use of his image, Yahoo News reported.   


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Nirvana's Kurt Cobain plays in the now famous olive-green sweater on MTV Unplugged in 1993 (credit: screenshot)
Nirvana's Kurt Cobain plays in the now famous olive-green sweater on MTV Unplugged in 1993 (credit: screenshot)

Nevermind was released in 1991 which featured some of the band's most famous tracks: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Come as You Are."

Since Kurt Cobain's death in 1994, Nirvana's surviving members are bassist Krist Novoselic and guitarist Dave Grohl.