'Nevermind' baby, now 30 years old, sues Nirvana for child pornography

Spencer Elden, known to rock fans as the naked baby on the cover of Nirvana’s 1991 album "Nevermind," is alleging in a lawsuit that the photo is child pornography, according to reports.

The suit was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, according to CNBC, and accuses the legendary grunge band of violating federal child pornography laws.

Elden, 30, is asking for a trial by jury and $150,000 from each of 17 defendants, according to USA Today. Those include former Nirvana members Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Chad Channing; Courtney Love, widow of the band’s frontman, Kurt Cobain, and the executor of his estate; the album’s photographer and graphic designer; and the record companies Universal Music Group, Geffen, Warner and MCA Music. The suit alleges that Elden will suffer lifelong damage as a result of his appearance on the album cover.

The band and others "commercially marketed Spencer’s child pornography and leveraged the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at his expense," states a portion of the suit according to USA Today. The suit also calls the photo "an essential element of a record promotion scheme commonly utilized in the music industry to get attention, wherein album covers posed children in a sexually provocative manner to gain notoriety, drive sales, and garner media attention, and critical reviews."

The cover of "Nevermind" depicts a nude baby, with genitals visible, floating in water near a fishhook baited with a dollar bill. The lawsuit suggested that the photo made Elden look "like a sex worker."

Released in September 1991, "Nevermind" is considered one of rock music’s most iconic albums. Its hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" helped launch the grunge movement and turned the album into a generational landmark. "Nevermind" topped charts around the world and sold an estimated 30 million copies to become one of the bestselling albums of all time.

Elden has recreated his famous cover photo more than once, most recently for the album’s 25th anniversary. At that time he wanted to pose nude, according to an interview in the New York Post, but his photographer nixed the idea as "weird."