It’s almost the 30th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind album, and for its birthday, virtually everyone who was involved in it is getting a lawsuit. Spencer Elden, the album cover star, pictured naked at four months old in a pool reaching for a dollar bill, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday alleging that the photo was child pornography.
Per Variety, he’s asking for “at least” $150,000 from each of the defendants, including a long laundry list of surviving band members, surviving record companies, defunct record companies, the photographer Kirk Weddle, and the executor of band frontman Kurt Cobain’s estate, Courtney Love—pretty much everyone involved in the shoot, plus the first drummer in the band, Chad Channing, as well as Dave Grohl, the drummer who replaced him and who was actually in the band by the time of the shoot. None the defendants have responded to the Washington Post’s request for comment.
The lawsuit reads, according to Variety, “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.”
It continues, “Defendants used child pornography depicting Spencer as an essential element of a record promotion scheme commonly utilized in the music industry to get attention, wherein album covers posed children in a sexually provocative manner to gain notoriety, drive sales, and garner media attention, and critical reviews.”
Photographer Weddle also just put together a book about the project, and it includes nearly 140 outtakes, from a test shot of a doll in the pool to promo images of the band. “The book from ACC Art Books showcases these extraordinary shots, examining just how difficult photographing an underwater baby turned out to be, nevertheless photographing an underwater band. These images of Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, and Krist Novoselic capture the band as they dive in and submerge themselves into the rock icon stratosphere,” reads a press release.
Weddle is named specifically in the lawsuit, especially in Elden’s lawyer’s argument that the photo constitutes child pornography. “Weddle took a series of sexually graphic nude photographs of Spencer,” the filing reads, per Variety. “To ensure the album cover would trigger a visceral sexual response from the viewer, Weddle activated Spencer’s ‘gag reflex’ before throwing him underwater in poses highlighting and emphasizing Spencer’s exposed genitals. Fisher purchased fishhooks from a bait and tackle shop to add to the scene. At least one or more film cartridges were exposed in a short period of time which included at least 40 or 50 different image shots of Spencer. Cobain chose the image depicting Spencer—like a sex worker—grabbing for a dollar bill that is positioned dangling from a fishhook in front of his nude body with his penis explicitly displayed.”
Elden claims that aside from a $200 check, he and his parents were never compensated for the work. Weddle befriended Spencer’s father Rick Elden on previous photoshoots, where the elder Elden helped with props. In a 2008 interview, Rick Elden told NPR, “[He] calls us up and was like, ‘Hey Rick, wanna make 200 bucks and throw your kid in the drink?’ … And we just had a big party at the pool, and no one had any idea what was going on!”
Elden’s parents also allegedly never signed a release, which could be the real sticking point in the suit. “Neither Spencer nor his legal guardians ever signed a release authorizing the use of any images of Spencer or of his likeness, and certainly not of commercial child pornography depicting him,” the lawsuit claims.
Elden has expressed ambivalence about being involved in the project before in interviews, including around anniversaries where he’s recreated the photoshoot. In a 2016 Time magazine story, the then 25-year-old’s struggle was top of mind. “I got a little upset for a bit,” he said. “I was trying to reach out to these people. I never met anybody. I didn’t get a call or email. I just woke up already being a part of this huge project. It’s pretty difficult—you feel like you’re famous for nothing, but you didn’t really do anything but their album.”
He called the concept for the cover art “genius,” but noted that he did not enjoy all of the merchandise and paraphernalia that came with such a popular image and record. “It’s hard not to get upset when you hear how much money was involved,” he said. “[When] I go to a baseball game and think about it: ‘Man, everybody at this baseball game has probably seen my little baby penis,’ I feel like I got part of my human rights revoked.”
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