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(CNN) -
Spencer Elden, who appeared naked as a baby on the cover of Nirvana's 1991 album "Nevermind," has claimed that the album's iconic artwork is child pornography and is suing the band for alleged "exploitation. infantile sexual ".
The rock album cover shows Elden, then a baby, swimming underwater while naked, his eyes fixed on a dollar bill.
This became one of the most enduring images of rock music after the album was released.
But in a complaint, filed Tuesday in federal court in California and obtained by CNN, Elden's attorneys said the image was pornographic and that he had suffered "life-long damage" as a result of his involvement.
The album cover became one of the most famous images in rock music.
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Elden, now 30, has listed the band's surviving members, the executors of lead singer Kurt Cobain's estate and various record labels as defendants.
It seeks to obtain $ 150,000 in damages from each of the defendants, plus legal costs, and alleges that the defendants "knowingly produced, possessed and publicized commercial child pornography."
The lawsuit alleges that Elden was sexualized because the dollar bill used in the image made the baby look like "a sex worker."
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Elden has recreated the image on occasions during his adult years, but has also suggested in interviews that he was uncomfortable with the popularity of the album cover.
In 2007 he told The Sunday Times that he found it "a little creepy that so many people have seen me naked ... I feel like the biggest porn star in the world."
The following year, he told CNN that he was often asked to attend events like "baby Nirvana."
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Nevermind, the iconic Nirvana album
"Nevermind" and its lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" sold millions of copies and helped popularize grunge music in America.
Both its content and its cover were billed as seminal rock works, but three years after its release, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain committed suicide in Seattle and the remaining members subsequently disbanded.
Elden told CNN in 2008: "Cobain was rumored to have the original concept of wanting to show a mother giving birth underwater."
And he added: "But the commitment was to have a baby swimming underwater. Or so they told me."
The lawsuit alleges that Elden "has suffered and will continue to suffer personal injury from the distribution and possession of child pornography," including emotional distress and loss of income.
Cobain's wife, singer Courtney Love, is listed in the lawsuit as executor of Cobain's estate, along with others such as photographer Kirk Weddle and record labels Warner Records and Universal Music Group.
CNN has reached out to each of the parties for comment.
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