Spencer Elden, the (former) baby swimming on the cover of Nirvana's classic 1991 Nevermind album, filed a lawsuit against Nirvana and people associated with the band back in August.
The lawsuit claims that the image is child pornography and was originally seeking $150,000 each from Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic; Courtney Love, who serves as the executor of Kurt Cobain’s estate; original drummer Chad Channing who was not involved in Nevermind; both of the estate's managers Guy Oseary and Heather Parry; photographer Kirk Weddle, who took the initial photo; art director of Nevermind Robert Fisher; and "a number of existing or defunct record companies that released or distributed the album in the last three decades."
According to Rolling Stone, Channing, Parry, Oseary, and Warner Music have been dropped from the lawsuit. However, Elden now claims that Weddle also dressed Elden up to "look like Playboy founder Hugh Hefner" and took additional photos. Elden also added a passage from Cobain's personal diary to the lawsuit to allegedly back up his claims that the photographs were intended to be sexual.
"Undated journals written by Cobain sketch the album cover in a sexual manner, with semen all over it," states the lawsuit. "In several instances, the journals describe Cobain's twisted vision for the Nevermind album cover, along with his emotional struggles: 'I like to make incisions into the belly of infants then fuck the incision until the child dies.'"
Grohl recently reacted to the lawsuit, not really saying much outside "Listen, [Elden] got a Nevermind tattoo. I don't."
