Spencer is suing the band's surviving members as well as the late Kurt Cobain's estate.Īccording to court documents seen by Mirror, Spencer claims as he was 4 months old at the time the snap was captured that he could not consent and that his legal guardians did not either.Įlden 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. He claims that Nirvana violated federal child abuse imagery laws by using his photo on the CD cover - that sold over 30million copies worldwide - and is accusing them of sexual exploitation, in documents filed in California. The 30-year-old has accused the musicians of 'sexual exploitation' and is seeking $150,000, after saying that he could not consent to be being pictured nude on the front of the album. The lawsuit alleges Cobain, Novoselic and Grohl purposefully chose the image of Elden with his penis visible, reaching for a dollar bill dangling from a fishhook 'like a sex worker.Spencer Elden - who was the baby featured on the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind album - has lodged a lawsuit against the band. '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,' the lawsuit alleges.Įlden asks for a trial by jury and $150,000 from each of the 17 defendants, including former Nirvana members along with Cobain's widow and estate executor, Courtney Love, the album's photographer and designer, and record companies Universal Music Group, Geffen, Warner and MCA Music.

Related: Judge grants motion to dismiss Nirvana 'Nevermind' baby child pornography lawsuit Background: Man who appeared on Nirvana's 'Nevermind' cover renews plea to remove his genitalia from album art

Nirvana nevermind cover picture