Nevermind Baby Spencer Elden Accuses Nirvana Of Child Pornography

Spencer Elden

You probably know by now that the ‘Nevermind’ baby, who was on the cover of Nirvana’s iconic album, is suing the members of the band, Kurt Cobain’s estate, photographer Kirk Weddle, and the labels that released the album. Spencer Elden, now 30, accuses the defendants of child pornography and child sexual exploitation.

The lawsuit states: ‘The permanent harm he has proximately suffered includes but is not limited to extreme and permanent emotional distress with physical manifestations, interference with his normal development and educational progress, lifelong loss of income earning capacity, loss of past and future wages, past and future expenses for medical and psychological treatment, loss of enjoyment of life and other losses to be described and proven at trial of this matter.’

Of course, we are talking about a guy who tattooed ‘Nevermind’ on his chest and recreated the scene twice as an adult (with a swimsuit) to celebrate the 10th and the 15th anniversary of the album. How traumatized can he be? The excerpt above has to be the apotheosis of nonsense and a product of our litigious and exploitative culture.

It’s difficult to avoid the obvious: Elden is after the money – everyone has noticed that the grown-up baby is still chasing the dollar bill, and I haven’t found one person having a tiny bit of sympathy for Elden’s ‘emotional distress.

Calling the artwork of the album child sexual exploitation would imply that every person who owns the album also owns child pornography. This is some abysmal insanity.

Strangely, Elden is only asking for 150K, a modest compensation for what he describes above, especially when considering that Nevermind is one of the best-selling records of all time, with at least 30 million copies sold worldwide. However, he probably has more chance to get the sum he is asking for than millions – if the judge is dumb enough to buy his emotional distress story. But he is certainly after something else than money: publicity. Spencer is a ‘visual artist,’ he is even selling these ‘pieces of art’ as NFT, the new trend which sounds like the scam du jour. Take a close look at this one: 1 ETH ($3,200)… really?

There’s even more to the story. A few years ago, Spencer Elden said to GQ Australia that he had asked Nirvana to be part of his art show, and was not really successful. This actually tells the entire story: Spencer Elden is full of himself – ‘Why am I still on their cover if
 I’m not that big of a deal?’ He declared to GQ – and his bogus lawsuit is just a spite move because he was not recognized ‘a big deal’ by Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic.

People are free to sue whoever they want but this constant cover of ‘emotional distress’ or ‘abuse’ is the worst thing that could happen to our society. And, at the image of the current fake accusations against Bob Dylan, this is doing a great disservice to people who have really been abused.