The same report also quoted Elden as a teenager responding to his ongoing fame. Later that year, Nirvana's label DGC, a subsidiary of Geffen Records, sent Elden a platinum copy of Nevermind and a teddy bear, according to NPR.
In a 2008 interview with US public radio broadcaster NPR, Elden's father Rick described how his friend, photographer Kirk Weddle, called him up in 1991 and said "wanna make 200 bucks and throw your kid in the drink." But the family had no idea what the photo would be used for until they noticed a huge image of the Nevermind cover on Tower Records in Sunset Boulevard three months later. It added that "Spencer nor his legal guardians ever signed a release authorizing the use of any images of Spencer or of his likeness." Of the 40 to 50 images taken at the shoot, the lawsuit claimed that Nirvana lead singer and songwriter Kurt Cobain chose the image of Elden "grabbing for a dollar bill" that depicted him "like a sex worker." The original lawsuit also alleged that the marketing of the record via a naked Elden reaching for a dollar bill held on a hook - the image was also used in the video clip for the hit single from the album, "Come As You Are" - was a "sex trafficking venture." His first attempt to sue the original band members, record label, album photographer and others (each for USD 150,000, or €128,000) for "lifelong damages" that include "extreme and permanent emotional distress with physical manifestations, interference with his normal development and educational progress, lifelong loss of income earning capacity" and "loss of enjoyment of life" was dismissed by a judge on January 3.īut Elden has now filed a new lawsuit accusing the band of sexual exploitation.ĪLSO READ | Songs like Nirvana’s, novels like Kerouac’s: How AI is getting artistic When the boy, Spencer Elden, was snapped naked in the water and wound up front-and-centre on band's ground-breaking Nevermind album, his likeness became the epoch-defining image of grunge rock.īut 30 years after the album's release, Elden's lawyers filed in August 2021 a lawsuit alleging that the Nevermind image was procured after Elden "was forced to engage in commercial sexual acts while under the age of 18 years old." In 1991, photographer Kirk Weddle asked a friend to bring his four-month baby to a photo shoot at a swimming pool for the indie band Nirvana.
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