Spencer Elden, the (former) baby swimming on the cover of Nirvana's classic 1991 Nevermind album, filed a lawsuit against Nirvana and entities associated with the band back in August 2021 claiming that the iconic cover image is child pornography. The lawsuit was dismissed that December with the caveat that Elden's team had until January 13 to refile the lawsuit. Which they did.
The re-filed lawsuit dropped the part about the image being "sex trafficking" but added that the band "intentionally commercially marketed the child pornography depicting Spencer and leveraged the lascivious nature of his image to promote the Nevermind album, the band, and Nirvana's music, while earning, at a minimum, tens of millions of dollars in the aggregate."
The new suit also used alternate artwork from Nevermind art director Robert Fisher (who was dropped from the lawsuit) that does not contain nudity, claiming that this "suggests it proves the band made a deliberate decision to go in a different direction artistically."
Now in a new interview filing obtained by Rolling Stone, Nirvana's lawyers are basically saying that enough is enough. "For Elden, this is strike three. This case must end," the lawyers said. They added that the re-filed lawsuit didn't add anything substantially new that proved Elden's claim.
"The time has run," the new filing states. "Elden's decision to not sue these defendants for the past 30 years, despite his decades-long knowledge of their same and unvaried conduct, is dispositive of his claim. It is as simple as that."
Nirvana's camp previously called Elden's lawsuit "not serious," claiming that Elden has "spent three decades profiting from his celebrity as the self-anointed 'Nirvana Baby'" and assert that his lawsuit "will fail on the merits." The parties also make the argument that a photo of a naked baby is not child pornography.
Grohl also recently reacted to the lawsuit, not really saying much outside "Listen, [Elden] got a Nevermind tattoo. I don't."
