In a bizarre breaking news story that few people expected, Spencer Elden – the boy who featured naked as a baby on Nirvana’s 1991 Album, Nevermind – is suing the band and multiple related parties for what he describes as child sexual exploitation. It is understood that Elden, who featured on the album when he was just four months old, is suing for at least $150,000 from each of the defendants, of which there are seventeen! Defendants consist of the surviving members of Kurt Cobain’s genre-defining band, his ex-wife and widow Courtney Love, and every record label involved in the production or sale of the album. The suit also includes designer Robert Fisher, ex-drummer Chad Channing, and artwork photographer Kirk Weddle.
In the lawsuit filed to a district court in California, Elden accuses the defendants of being party to the production and distribution of child pornography. Elden’s genitalia can be clearly seen in the album cover, which shows him floating in a swimming pool, reaching out for a single dollar bill on a fishing hook. Elden states that all who were involved are guilty of “commercial child sexual exploitation of him from while he was a minor to the present day”, because they “knowingly produced, possessed and advertised commercial child pornography depicting Spencer”.
Elden claims he has suffered lifelong damaged from being featured on the album without his consent. He recounts that he has suffered “extreme and permanent emotional distress with physical manifestations” along with a loss of earnings, educational opportunity, and “enjoyment of life”. Elden is now well-known as being the baby featured on the album and has recreated the image three times over the course of his life: on the record’s 10th, 15th, and 25th anniversaries. He also features a “Nevermind” tattoo across his chest. The album sold over 30 million copies worldwide.
Elden’s legal team had this to say:
“To ensure the album cover would trigger a visceral sexual response from the viewer, (photographer Kirk) Weddle activated Spencer’s ‘gag reflex’ before throwing him underwater in poses highlighting and emphasizing Spencer’s exposed genitals.” Adding that Spencer was the victim of an “element of a record promotion scheme commonly utilized in the music industry to get attention, wherein album covers posed children in a sexually provocative manner to gain notoriety, drive sales, and garner media attention, and critical reviews.”
More news on Elden’s law suit will be available as it is released and as always, keep checking back here at DoubleTapped for all your sneakers, sports and entertainment news!