American Spencer Elden, who appeared on the cover of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” as a child, has sued 15 people, including former band members and property manager Kurt Cobain, accusing them of commercial sexual assault, media reported on Wednesday.
The cover of the 1991 album depicts four-month-old Elden naked in a pool with a $ 1 bill on a rope.
Elden, now 30, says his parents did not sign the permit to use the photo, and the photo is child pornography.
Lawsuit against the team
The lawsuit, filed in California on Tuesday, said the cover depicted “Spencer’s private body” and the photos “indecently” showed his genitals. According to BBC News, under US law, photos of non-sexual babies that are not considered child pornography.
Spencer Elden, who was famously photographed as a baby for Nirvana’s iconic Nevermind album cover, is suing the band for child sexual exploitation: https://t.co/yDrCDYO29j pic.twitter.com/XVgUEyOucf
— Consequence (@consequence) August 25, 2021
Elden’s lawyer, Robert J. Lewis, says the presence of a dollar bill (which was added after the photo was taken) makes the minor look like a “sex worker.”
The lawsuit also states that Nirvana promised to seal Elden’s genitals with a sticker.
“Commercial sexual exploitation”
According to Elden, “his identity and name are forever linked to the commercial sexual abuse he suffered as a minor, which spread and sold around the world from the time he was a child to the present day.”
He claims that he “suffered and will suffer all his life” because of the cover. The lawsuit also mentions “severe and prolonged emotional suffering,” “abnormal development and success,” and “medical and psychological treatment.”
Compensation from each of the 15 defendants
He is demanding compensation of at least $ 150,000 from each of the 15 defendants, including surviving team members Dave Grohl and Christ Novoselych, estate manager Kurt Cobain, Cobain’s ex-wife Courtney Love and photographer Kirk Weddle.
Nirvana officials have not yet commented on the matter.
“It seems to me that some of my rights have been taken away from me”
Elden played the album cover several times, as a teenager and adult, always in swimming trunks to celebrate the 10th, 20th and 25th anniversary of Nevermind.
Happy 30th birthday to #SpencerElden. He’s most remembered appearing on #Nirvana‘s second album #NeverMind, which he has recreated a few times but with swintrunks on. pic.twitter.com/3e4wMtADAP
— Tyler Puszczewicz (@TPuszczewicz) February 8, 2021
In an interview with Time Magazine in 2016, he said he was “a little nervous” about his fame when he was growing up.
“I go to a baseball game and I think ‘everyone at this baseball game probably saw a little kid’s penis,’ I feel like I’ve lost some of my human rights,” he said.
“It’s always been positive”
BBC News emphasizes that in other interviews he spoke about the cover more optimistically.
“It’s always been positive, and it opened the door for me,” he told the Guardian in 2015.
Spencer’s father about photo shoots
In 2008, Spencer’s father Rick told about photo shoots for the American radio station NPR. He said Weddle, one of his family, offered him $ 200 to participate. The family quickly forgot about the session, remembering it three months later when they saw the cover of the album “Nervmind” on the wall of Tower Records in Los Angeles.
Hits from the album “Nervmind”
The album, which included the hits “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “Come As You Are” and “Lithium”, sold 30 million copies worldwide.