He also has the album title tattooed on his body. Having recreated the pose for several Nevermind anniversaries as a teenager, Elden last entered a swimming pool to reprise the image in 2016 when the album turned 25. “Cause I guess they have like a floating thing where people can like walk on me and stuff … so it’s kinda cool.” “My friend is all like, ‘Hey I saw you today.’ And I’m like, ‘Dude, I was working all day.’ And he’s like, ‘No, I went to Geffen Records, and you’re on the floor and you’re floating and I stepped on your face.'” Elden recounted. The same report also quoted Elden as a teenager responding to his ongoing fame. Later that year, Nirvana’s label DGC, a subsidiary of Geffen Records, sent Elden a platinum copy of Nevermind and a teddy bear, according to NPR. In a 2008 interview with US media radio broadcaster NPR, Elden’s father Rick described how his friend, photographer Kirk Weddle, called him up in 1991 and said “wanna make 200 bucks and throw your kid in the drink.” But the family had no idea what the photo would be used for until they noticed a huge image of the Nevermind cover on Tower Records in Sunset Boulevard three months later. It added that “Spencer nor his legal guardians ever signed a release authorizing the use of any images of Spencer or of his likeness.” Of the 40 to 50 images taken at the shoot, the lawsuit claims that Nirvana lead singer and songwriter Kurt Cobain chose the image of Elden “grabbing for a dollar bill” that depicted him “like a sex worker.” The lawsuit also alleges that the marketing of the record via a naked Elden reaching for a dollar bill held on a hook - the image was also used the the video clip for the hit single from the album, “Come As You Are” - was a “sex trafficking venture.”
When the boy, Spencer Elden, was snapped naked in the water and wound up front-and-center on band’s groundbreaking Nevermind album, his likeness became the epoch-defining image of grunge rock.īut 30 years after the album’s release, Elden’s lawyers have filed a lawsuit alleging that the Nevermind image was procured after Elden “was forced to engage in commercial sexual acts while under the age of 18 years old.”Īs a result, he is suing the original band members, record label, album photographer and others (each for $150,000, or €128,000) for “lifelong damages” that include “extreme and permanent emotional distress with physical manifestations, interference with his normal development and educational progress, lifelong loss of income earning capacity,” and “loss of enjoyment of life.”
In 1991, photographer Kirk Weddle asked a friend to bring his four-month baby to a photo shoot at a swimming pool for the indie band Nirvana.
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