The grunge rock band Nirvana was accused of child pornography by the man who was depicted as a baby on the cover of an iconic Nirvana album, but the lawsuit was dismissed.
Spencer Elden, a Los Angeles artist who is now 31 years old, filed the lawsuit in 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claiming that seeing himself naked as a 4-month-old infant on the album cover for “Nevermind” in 1991 caused him emotional distress and diminished his ability to learn as an adult.
Elden made an effort to recover $150,000 from the estate of Kurt Cobain, his wife Courtney Love, former bandmates Krist Novoselic, Chad Channing, David Grohl, and Robert Fisher, as well as other parties.
The artists, according to Elden’s complaint, “commercially advertised Spencer’s child pornography and leveraged the horrific aspect of his image to promote themselves and their music at his cost.”
Unopposed motion to dismiss
The album featuring Elden swimming naked in a pool and reaching for a dollar bill that is superimposed on a fish hook has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
Elden waited too long to file the lawsuit, according to United States district judge Fernando M. Olguin, who ruled on Friday. Elden had knowledge of the album cover more than ten years prior.
After Elden’s attorneys missed the deadline to submit an opposition to the defendants’ motion to dismiss, the judge dismissed the case in January.
A second amended complaint regarding “alleged defects” in the defendants’ motion to dismiss had been submitted by Elden’s attorneys.
Elden had been making money off of his appearance on the album cover for thirty years, according to Nirvana’s legal team’s motion to dismiss the case.
He has repeatedly imitated the image for payment, had the album title “Nevermind” tattooed across his chest, appeared on a talk show while wearing a self-parodying, nude-colored onesie, has signed album covers for sale on eBay, and has used the connection to try to attract women, they claimed.