Dave Grohl addresses the recent lawsuit filed by Spencer Elden who accused Nirvana of child exploitation over the “Nevermind” artwork.
The cover art for Nirvana’s second studio album, Nevermind became the center of a new lawsuit last month. 30-year-old Spencer Elden, the baby used on the album’s cover, sued the band for child exploitation. Elden filed a lawsuit this summer for $150K in damages, claiming that he, nor his parents, never filed any paperwork “authorizing the use of any images of Spencer or of his likeness, and certainly not of commercial child pornography depicting him.”
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Dave Grohl recently sat down for an interview with The Times where he suggested that future prints of the album will include a different cover art altogether. “I have many ideas of how we should alter that cover, but we’ll see what happens,” he said. “We’ll let you know. I’m sure we’ll come up with something good.”
As for the lawsuit itself, Grohl explained that he’s not entirely too concerned over the matter. “I think that there’s much more to look forward to and much more to life than getting bogged down in those kinds of things. And, fortunately, I don’t have to do the paperwork,” he said.
Elden’s lawsuit included claims that the group “reproduced child pornography depicting Spencer knowing and intending that it would be distributed internationally and that they would receive value from such widespread worldwide distribution.” He added in the suit that they “failed to take reasonable steps” towards preventing “widespread sexual exploitation and image trafficking” of Spencer as a 4-month-old baby.
We’ll keep you posted on more details surrounding the case.