Spencer Elden, known to be the baby on the iconic cover of
Nevermind
, Nirvana's second album, lodged a complaint in August because neither he nor his parents had "
signed a document authorizing the use of photographs of Spencer or his image, and certainly not for the commercial exploitation of child pornography images of him.
According to
Rolling Stone
,
his legal team would have new strings to its bow.
The diary of Kurt Cobain and Hugh Hefner
The 30-something lawyers rely on Kurt Cobain's diary.
Published almost twenty years ago, these notebooks kept for years compile song texts, sketches, album rankings of all kinds and digressions on what could animate the spirit of the singer at that time.
Read also The baby of the album
Nevermind
files a complaint against Nirvana
It is on this last point that the defense of Spencer Elden intends to rely.
“Undated diaries written by Cobain describe the album cover sexually, with semen on it. (...) In several cases, the newspapers describe Cobain's twisted vision for the
Nevermind
album cover
, as well as his emotional struggles: “I like to make incisions in the stomachs of children, then kiss the incision until the child dies ””
defend the lawyers in their amended complaint. They also directly incriminate the author of the photograph, the photographer Kirk Weddle. The latter would, in the wake of the photo shoot, "produced" unused but unequivocal footage of Elden disguised as Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy.
Although he has plunged into a swimming pool several times to replicate the iconic cliché at different stages of his life, Spencer Elden argued in his initial complaint that he had so far lived a
"life of suffering"
, that his identity was
" forever linked to the commercial exploitation ”
of
Nevermind
, and that the image was akin to
“ commercial pornography ”.
Four people affected by the complaint
Several people are no longer affected by the lawsuits brought by Spencer Elden.
This is the case of Chad Channing, the drummer of Nirvana until 1990, having taken part in the creative beginnings leading to
Nevermind
, before being replaced by Dave Grohl.
This is also the case for Warner Music, the group's record company, as well as Heather Parry and Guy Oseary, in charge of managing the rights to Nirvana.
To read also
Nevermind:
Dave Grohl has "several ideas" to modify the cover of the cult album of Nirvana
The procedure therefore concerns only Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, the two members of the group still alive, as well as Courtney Love, the widow of Kurt Cobain, and the photographer Kirk Weddle.
Spencer Elden claims "at least $ 150,000" in damages per accused.
Kurt Cobain, who died in 1994, has only once commented on this cover art and the controversial image it could represent to the most conservative minds:
"If you're offended by this, you must be a repressed pedophile."
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/5V3BKLQGUFCGJNOFC3AELS4EEU.jpg)
