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Aug 25, 2021 By Joey Arnone

Nirvana and the estate of Kurt Cobain are being sued by Spencer Elden, the man who was originally featured as a naked baby swimming after a dollar on the iconic cover of the band’s 1991 album Nevermind when he was just four months old. Elden is claiming that the cover constitutes as child pornography, also citing a lack of consent on behalf of his legal guardians for him to appear naked on the album cover. Elden recreated the album’s cover in 2016 for its 25th anniversary, but went on to express his distaste for it in GQ Australia that same year: “It’s fucked up. I’m pissed off about it, to be honest. Recently I’ve been thinking, ‘What if I wasn’t OK with my freaking penis being shown to everybody?’ I didn’t really have a choice.” The photographer, Kirk Weddle, is also being sued by Elden, and is being accused along with the surviving members of Nirvana as well as Cobain of neglecting to protect him from sexual exploitation—he claims that the band promised to cover his genitalia with a sticker for the album artwork and failed to do so. Elden expects to receive $150,000 from all parties involved in the lawsuit. Support Under the Radar on Patreon.