'Nevermind Baby' reinstates lawsuit against Nirvana album cover

Spencer Elden, the naked baby pictured on the cover of Nirvana album Nevermind, has reinstated his lawsuit against the band after it was dismissed last week, alleging "child sexual abuse imagery."

The amended complaint was filed on Wednesday, meeting the deadline set by a federal judge in California after the cases' dismissal on January 4. Elden, now 30, reinstated his charges against band members Dave Grohl, Chad Channing, Krist Novoselic and the late Kurt Cobain, as well as numerous record labels and photographer Kurt Weddle.

"Spencer's image constitutes child pornography and each of the Nirvana Defendants robbed our client of his dignity and privacy," said his attorney in a statement to USA Today. "This unprecedented album cover is perhaps the first and only time a child's full-frontal nudity has been used to sell a product."

The best selling album from iconic grunge band Nirvana, Nevermind has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Elden, the baby chasing the dollar, is pictured on all of them.

Elden's attorneys claim that the band was prioritising profit over safety, "[Nirvana] leveraged the lascivious nature of his image to promote the Nevermind album, the band, and Nirvana’s music, while earning, at a minimum, tens of millions of dollars in the aggregate.”

In their December 22 motion, Nirvana's lawyers stated that until recently, Elden had been more then willing to associate with the cover — recreating the photo as an adult to celebrate the 15th and 25th anniversaries of the album — making the charge of "longterm damages" unbelievable.

"Elden's claims fail, at the outset, because they are time-barred," Nirvana's lawyers wrote to Billboard in a response to the original lawsuit. "He has been fully aware of the facts of both the supposed ‘violation’ and ‘injury’ for decades.”