After his case was dismissed by a California judge earlier this month, the man who appeared on Nirvana’s Nevermind album art as a baby has refiled his child pornography lawsuit.
In December, the surviving members of Nirvana asked the court to dismiss the sexual exploitation suit over the 1991 album cover, which featured a naked baby swimming after a dollar. 30-year-old Spencer Elden, who is the child featured in the art, initially filed his lawsuit in August, 2021 before it was dismissed this month for missing a deadline. Per USA Today, Elden has once again asserted the image “constitutes child pornography,” and has reopened the now amended lawsuit.
The legal team for Elden was given until Thursday, Jan. 13 to file their “one last opportunity” to sue Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Chad Channing, and the late Kurt Cobain. Filed on Wednesday, the new version of the lawsuit contains additional “images and materials which reveal the Nevermind creators’ deliberate choices to commercialize and exploit the sexually explicit photo lasciviously depicting Sepncer’s genitals.”
According to Elden’s attorneys, “This unprecedented album cover is perhaps the first and only time a child’s full-frontal nudity has been used to sell a product. … Spencer’s image constitutes child pornography and each of the Nirvana Defendants robbed our client of his dignity and privacy.” In the suit, Elden accused Cobain of utilizing “commercial child pornography” by putting the image on the cover of Nevermind.
“During the 10 years preceding the filing of this action, each Defendant intentionally commercially marketed the child pornography depicting Spencer and leveraged the lascivious nature of his image to promote the ‘Nevermind’ album, the band, and Nirvana’s music, while earning, at a minimum tens of millions of dollars in the aggregate,” reads the lawsuit.
Elden is seeking $150,000 each from a total of 17 defendants listed, which also includes Cobain’s widow Courtney Love, and all of the record companies that distributed and funded the record.
