nirvana nevermind cover photo 26 years later

Nirvana nevermind cover photo 26 years later plus#
Nirvana nevermind cover photo 26 years later series#

Speaking about his fame in interviews accompanying these shoots, he's never described the photos as pornographic, though he has admitted to having mixed feelings as to whether he was exploited.

At one point, he even ahd the Nevermind emblem tattooed on his chest. In previous years, Elden had recreated the album cover as a teenager and as an adult for various anniversaries of Nevermind. Spencer Elden, known as Nirvana Baby, appeared on the cover of the landmark album, Nevermind when he was an infant. 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.' Whatever happened to the naked swimming baby in Nirvana’s Nevermind album cover That’s the question everyone’s asking now that the album celebrates its 25th. 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. Fisher purchased fishhooks from a bait and tackle shop to add to the scene. '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.

Nirvana nevermind cover photo 26 years later series#

They have sold more than 75 million records around the world but stopped performing together following Cobain’s death.ĭave Grohl, Nirvana’s drummer who was named in Elden’s lawsuit, later founded the Foo Fighters, another hugely successful group.'Weddle took a series of sexually graphic nude photographs of Spencer,' the suit reads. Nirvana formed in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987, emerging from the Seattle grunge scene to become one of the biggest bands in the world. She appeared to acknowledge the legal action, writing on Instagram: “I’ve got nothing much on my mind. Singer Courtney Love was married to Cobain at the time of his death and is named as a defendant in the lawsuit as executor of her late husband’s estate.

Nirvana nevermind cover photo 26 years later plus#

Mr Elden’s lawyers are seeking $US150,000 ($A206,879) in damages from each of the defendants, plus legal fees. In 2007, he told the Sunday Times he found it “kind of creepy that many people have seen me naked … I feel like the world’s biggest porn star”.īy 2015, he was telling the New York post that “it would be nice to have a quarter for every person that has seen my baby penis”.Īnd the next year, he was even firmer, telling GQ Australia: “I’m pissed off about it, to be honest.” He has recreated it numerous times, including as recently as 2016, and reportedly has the album name tattooed on his chest.īut he has expressed mixed feelings about it in interviews that have grown increasingly negative through the years. Mr Elden has a conflicted relationship with the image. A limited number of rare Nirvana outtake photos that feature the band recreating their famous Nevermind album cover have been made available for purchase to the public for the first time ever. However, the cover was released without the redaction and depicts “commercial child pornography”, it is alleged. The lawsuit says Cobain, who took his own life in 1994 aged 27, was “instrumental” in choosing the album cover.Īfter meeting resistance over the picture, it is claimed, Cobain agreed to strategically place a sticker over the baby’s private parts with the text: “If you’re offended by this, you must be a closet paedophile.” The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California on Wednesday (local time), claims the defendants “failed to take reasonable steps to protect Spencer and prevent his widespread sexual exploitation and image trafficking”.Īs a result, it is alleged, Mr Elden “has suffered and will continue to suffer lifelong damages”. Mr Elden has now sued Mr Weddle, Nirvana’s record label and the individual band members – including the estate of late frontman Kurt Cobain – alleging the picture constitutes child pornography as it shows his genitalia. NIRVANA’S iconic Nevermind album cover, which featured a naked baby in a swimming pool, is at the centre of a new controversy after the muse has started legal action. Nevermind, powered by singles including Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are and Lithium, was a massive critical and commercial success, propelling grunge band Nirvana to global stardom. The baby who featured on the famed cover of Nirvana’s 1991 Nevermind album who is now 30 has sued the band for alleged child sexual exploitation. “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,” Mr Elden’s lawsuit says. A quarter century has passed since Nirvana's paradigm-shifting Nevermind foisted its unforgettable cover art upon the world: a naked baby in a swimming pool, reaching for an almighty dollar.