A few years earlier, Geffen had begun wagering that “alternative rock”-a category that began appearing on the Billboard charts around that time-could be a profitable niche. The band, which now consisted of Cobain, the bassist Krist Novoselic, and the drummer Dave Grohl, had signed with a major label, Geffen Records. When Nirvana released its second album, “Nevermind,” in the fall of 1991, everything changed-for me, and for the pop-music ecosystem. The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been victims of sexual abuse, but may when they have repeatedly come forward publicly, as Elden has.There was a romance to pledging allegiance to these lost causes and underground voices. He added, “It'd be nice to have a quarter for every person that has seen my baby penis.” He told the New York Post in 2015 that it was “cool but weird to be part of something so important that I don't even remember.”

“Cobain 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,” the lawsuit says.Įlden has recreated the image several times, always with clothes or swim trunks on, for anniversaries of the album's release, and has expressed mixed feelings about it in interviews that have grown increasingly negative through the years. When the cover was shot, Nirvana was a little-known grunge band with no sense they were making a generation-defining album in “Nevermind,” their first major label release, whose songs included “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Come as You Are” and “Lithium.”Įlden's father was a friend of the photographer, Kirk Weddle, who took pictures of several swimming babies in several scenarios at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, California. “If there is a 30th anniversary re-release, he wants for the entire world not to see his genitals,” Mabie said. Mabie said despite the photo being 30 years old, the suit is within the statute of limitations of federal child pornography law for several reasons, including the fact that the image is still in circulation and earning money.Įlden also wants any new versions of the album altered.

It seeks at least $150,000 from each of more than a dozen defendants, including the Kurt Cobain estate, surviving Nirvana members Krist Novocelic and Dave Grohl and Geffen Records.Įmails seeking comment from representatives for the defendants were not immediately returned.Įlden is filing the lawsuit now because he “finally has the courage to hold these actors accountable,” one of his attorneys, Maggie Mabie, told The Associated Press Wednesday. The suit says Elden has suffered “lifelong damages” from the ubiquitous image of him naked underwater appearing to swim after a dollar bill on a fish hook. The suit, filed by Spencer Elden on Tuesday in federal court in California, alleges that Nirvana and the record labels behind “Nevermind” “intentionally commercially marketed Spencer's child pornography and leveraged the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at his expense.” LOS ANGELES (AP) - A 30-year-old man who appeared nude at 4 months old in 1991 on the cover of Nirvana's “Nevermind” album is suing the band and others, alleging the image is child pornography they have profited from.

Nirvana nevermind cover clean