But recently I’ve been thinking, ‘What if I wasn’t OK with my freaking penis being shown to everybody?’ I didn’t really have a choice.”Įldon’s suit seeks damages and an injunction to prevent the band from profiting from the hit album. “I’m pissed off about it, to be honest … I’ve been going through it my whole life. Spencer Elden, who recreated his underwater pose, claims he was forced to engage in “commercial sex acts.” Splash NewsĮven though he seemed excited about the reenactment in 2016, days earlier the LA-based artist told Australia GQ he wished the band had stayed away. The infant’s family was only paid $200 for the 15-second plunge in the pool, which only happened because Elden’s dad was a friend of the photographer, according to a 2008 NPR report. It’s strange that I did this for five minutes when I was 4 months old and it became this really iconic image.” “I said to the photographer, ‘Let’s do it naked.’ But he thought that would be weird, so I wore my swim shorts,” Elden said of the shoot at the time. In 2016, 25-year-old Eldon recreated the cover fully clothed to pay homage to the hit record, which blasted indie rock to the mainstream with hits like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Lithium.” The plaintiff, who was 4 months old at the time of the 1991 underwater photoshoot, also claims he was forced to engage in “commercial sex acts,” and that the band went back on an alleged promise to conceal his genitals on the album cover.Īmerican rock group Nirvana is being sued by the baby shown on their “Nevermind” album cover. Spencer Eldon, now 30, is suing Kurt Cobain’s estate and Nirvana’s surviving members. 5, 2022, 7:33 AM PDT By Daniel Arkin and Diana Dasrath A federal judge last week dismissed a lawsuit filed by a man who appeared on the cover of the Nirvana album 'Nevermind' as a naked. The band, photographer and record labels “intentionally marketed Spencer’s child pornography and leveraged the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at his expense,” the suit alleges. Spencer Eldon, now 30, filed a lawsuit against Kurt Cobain’s estate and the band’s surviving members, saying the grunge pioneers violated federal child pornography statutes and sexually exploited him.Įldon also said he has suffered “lifelong damage” from having his naked body plastered on the triple-diamond-selling album, and claims neither he nor his guardians consented to the naked photoshoot, according to the federal suit. The naked baby photographed on Nirvana’s breakthrough album “Nevermind” is now accusing the band of being child pornographers, claiming they told him to “Come As You Are” without consent. Kurt Cobain’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ guitar could nab $800K at auctionīen Shapiro calls Biden ‘Kurt Cobain of politics’ in gruesome suicide reference No apologies: Judge tosses ‘Nevermind’ baby’s child porn case against Nirvana Smells like more court dates: Nirvana cover baby appeals judge’s child porn dismissal