Daily Times

Instead of a hit, the members of Nirvana now have a legal lawsuit on their hands. On Aug. 24, the man who was photographed naked underwater as a baby for the band’s iconic 1991 Nevermind album cover filed a lawsuit alleging that he was a victim of child pornography.

In court documents obtained by E! News, Spencer Elden, now 30, is suing for damages arising out of what the lawsuit alleges to be of each of the defendant’s violations of federal criminal child pornography statues.

According to Spencer and his attorney Robert Y Lewis, members of Nirvana including Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic “knowingly produced, possessed and advertised commercial child pornography depicting Spencer, and they knowingly received value in exchange for doing so.”

In court documents, the plaintiff alleges Nirvana “failed to take reasonable steps to protect Spencer and prevent his widespread sexual exploitation and image trafficking.” As a result, the plaintiff claims Spencer “has suffered and will continue to suffer lifelong damages.”

Spencer is asking for at least $150,000 from each of the defendants including Courtney Love, who is the executor of Kurt Cobain’s estate. E! News has reached out to Dave, Krist, Courtney and Nirvana’s teams for comment and has not heard back.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Spencer was cast for the album cover shoot at 4 months old along with three other babies. According to Geffen Records art director Robert Fisher, Kurt was inspired after watching a documentary about babies being born underwater.

According to Robert, Kurt “thought the image would make a cool cover. That vision was a bit too graphic, so we went with the swimming baby instead.”