Lawyers representing Kurt Cobain’s estate and the surviving members of Nirvana are seeking to get a child pornography lawsuit dismissed.
Spencer Elden, who was the naked baby on the Nevermind cover, filed a lawsuit in August alleging that the band exploited him. He is seeking at least $150,000 U.S. each from Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic as well as Courtney Love, the executor of Cobain’s estate.
“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,” reads the lawsuit. “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.”
In a motion filed Wednesday, lawyers for the band called Elden’s claims “absurd” and noted he has spent three decades “profiting from his celebrity as the self-anointed ‘Nirvana Baby.’” They also claim the 10-year statute of limitations for a civil claim has expired.
Elden was only four months old when his father Rick put him naked into the pool at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center for photographer Kirk Weddle, who is also a defendant in the lawsuit. Too young to swim, Elden managed to tread water long enough for the picture to be snapped. His parents collected $200 U.S.for the use of his image.
As an adult, he has recreated the image at least four times. To mark the album’s 25th anniversary in 2016, he posed for photographer John Chapple, who told iHeartRadio.ca at the time that Elden offered to go nude. “I didn’t know any publication that would use pictures of his junk,” said Chapple.
Elden has the album title tattooed on his chest.
“Listen, he’s got a Nevermind tattoo,” Grohl told Vulture. “I don’t.”