Nirvana album cover baby sues for sexual exploitation

LOS ANGELES • A man who appeared as a naked baby on the cover of Nirvana's 1991 Nevermind album has filed a lawsuit against the surviving members of the influential band, alleging the image was child sexual exploitation.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in California, Mr Spencer Elden alleged he has suffered lifelong damage from the image used on the album's cover, which depicts him swimming naked towards a US dollar bill pierced with a fish hook.

Nevermind is one of the best-selling albums of all time, having sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.

"Defendants intentionally commercially marketed Spencer's child pornography and leveraged the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at his expense," he alleged in the lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

Mr Elden, now 30, is asking for US$150,000 (S$203,000) in compensation from each of several defendants, including Universal Music, photographer Kirk Weddle, Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and Ms Courtney Love, the widow of the band's lead singer Kurt Cobain, who died in 1994.

According to the lawsuit, Mr Elden's parents never received any compensation for the image shot by Mr Weddle, who was a friend of Mr Elden's father.

The lawsuit alleged Mr Cobain initially agreed to have a sticker censor Mr Elden's genitals on the album, but no stickers were used.

Mr Elden recreated the image as an adult in 2016, and has "Nevermind" tattooed on his chest.

His lawyer said Mr Elden is "asking for Nirvana to do what Nirvana should have done 30 years ago and redact the images of his genitalia from the album cover".

Mr Weddle told The Guardian in 2019 that he had been in contact with Mr Elden. He said: "He's conflicted about the picture. He feels that everybody made money off it and he didn't."

REUTERS