NIRVANA wins lawsuit filed by naked baby on ‘Nevermind’ album cover
02-10-2025
NIRVANA has won a court ruling dismissing a lawsuit filed by the man who appeared as a nude baby on the cover of the band’s 1991 album Nevermind.
Now in his 30s, Spencer Elden claimed the photo – one of the most iconic album covers in rock history – violated federal child pornography laws by displaying a sexualized image of a minor.
But a federal judge ruled plainly on Tuesday that it was “not child pornography” – saying the famed image did not even come close to meeting the definition of such illegal content under federal law.
“Neither the pose, focal point, setting, nor overall context suggest the album cover features sexually explicit conduct,” Judge Fernando M. Olguin wrote in a ruling obtained and first reported by Billboard. “This image – an image that is most analogous to a family photo of a nude child bathing – is plainly insufficient to support a finding of child pornography.”
In statement to Billboard, Nirvana’s attorney Bert H. Deixler said: “We are delighted that the court has ended this meritless case and freed our creative clients of the stigma of false allegations.” An attorney for Elden did not immediately return a request for comment on the ruling.
Originally released Sept. 24, 1991, Nevermind reached the top spot on the Billboard 200 in January 1992 and ultimately spent 554 weeks on the chart. The legendary grunge album has sold more than 30 million copies and is widely considered one of the most influential in the history of rock music.
The album’s cover — a nude infant swimming in a pool chasing after a dollar attached to a fishhook — was long interpreted as an edgy critique of greed and capitalism. But in a 2021 civil lawsuit, Elden claimed it was something else entirely: the kind of “lascivious” display of a minor’s genitals that’s prohibited under federal child pornography statutes.
“Spencer’s true identity and legal name are forever tied to the commercial sexual exploitation he experienced as a minor,” his lawyers wrote at the time.
Legal experts expressed doubts about the case when it was first filed, saying the image likely didn’t meet the specific definition of child porn – and that Elden had seemed to repeatedly embrace the photo and his role in rock history before he decided to file a lawsuit.
NIRVANA‘s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video has surpassed two billion views on YouTube earlier this year. The clip, which was uploaded to the Google-owned video platform in June 2009, previously hit one billion views in 2019.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” opened NIRVANA‘s breakthrough release “Nevermind” (Geffen/UMe) which hit No. 1 around the world, selling more than 30 million copies worldwide. The single made its radio debut on August 27, 1991 and the accompanying video showed the band playing background music for a truly spirited high-school cheerleading squad. The clip was filmed on August 17, 1991 at a sound stage in Culver City, California.
The “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video was directed by Samuel Bayer, whose his personality clashed with those of the NIRVANA bandmembers. “He’s got a little Napoleon complex,” NIRVANA frontman Kurt Cobain said in the NIRVANA biography “Come As You Are: The Story Of Nirvana”. “He was just so hyper, such a rocker guy. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe we actually submitted to that.”
Courtney Love, who married Cobain in an intimate ceremony on February 24, 1992, told New York Magazine in 2011: “Kurt hated Sam Bayer. For ‘Teen Spirit’, Kurt wanted fat cheerleaders, he wanted black kids, he wanted to tell the world how fucked up high school was — but Sam put hot girls in the video. The crazy thing is it still worked.”
Back in December 2019, NIRVANA‘s video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” officially hit one billion views on YouTube.
“Nevermind” would come to be much more than one of the most successful and influential albums of all time. It returned rock ‘n’ roll integrity and passion to the top of the charts and continues to be a singular inspiration to fans and musicians alike over the last three decades — and generations to come. It has been credited over the years with helping to kill off hair metal.
Charles R. Cross, the author of “Heavier Than Heaven”, a biography of Cobain, told Today.com about the mega-success of “Nevermind”: “It’s an incredible album. It would have been a hit whenever it was released. But at the same time, the timing was right for there to be a superstar act like NIRVANA. It came right at the end of the death knell of hair metal and the world was screaming for rock music that would be meaningful again. And the timing for a new generation wanting a voice was also ideal. It just so happened that everything came together at the exact right moment when rock needed a revolution.”
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