Nirvana baby refiles lawsuit over 1991 Nevermind album cover

The man who appears as a baby on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind album has refiled a lawsuit on Wednesday against the band claiming that the photo constitutes child pornography.

Spencer Elden, now 30, claims the photo, in which he is swimming in a pool naked, caused him “permanent emotional distress.” Elden claimed that Nirvana purposefully used “child pornography” to promote the album that earned them millions of dollars.

"The image of Spencer with his naked genitals displayed while grabbing at money resembles the actions of a sex worker," said Elden’s lawyers. As a result, Elden "has suffered and will continue to suffer lifelong damages," they claimed.

Elden filed a lawsuit over the 1991 cover but it was dismissed by a judge earlier this month due to a missed deadline. Originally, the complaint claimed the photograph entailed sex trafficking when Elden was a baby. This claim, however, was dropped in the refiling.

The complaint was challenged by Nirvana’s lawyers who claimed the premise of the lawsuit was “absurd” since the photo was taken before the law allowed victims to sue under the federal trafficking of children statute.

Elden is asking for damages of at least $150,000 from each of the defendants, which include band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, the managers of Kurt Cobain’s estate, Cobain’s ex-wife Courtney Love, Geffen and Universal Music record labels, and photographer Kirk Weddle.

The lawsuit claims that in “10 years preceding the filing of this action each Defendant knowingly possessed, transported, reproduced, advertised, promoted, presented, distributed, provided and/or obtained child pornography depicting Spencer, who had not attained the age of 18 years when this image was printed on the cover of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ album.”

The defendants have until January 27 to reply to the new complaint.

In 2016, Elden seemed to enjoy having been part of the album cover and even reenacted the picture. “It’s cool but weird to be part of something so important that I don’t even remember,” said Elden.