An interview with the Nirvana baby has resurfaced where he revealed why he hates the album artwork.
Spencer Elden, now 30, is suing the band and Kurt Cobain's estate for child pornography after they used an image of him naked at four months old on the cover of their Nevermind album, according to documents obtained by Pitchfork.
Now a resurfaced interview with GQ from 2016 is circulating the internet, in which Elden says: "I'm p***ed off about it, to be honest. I’ve been going through it my whole life.
"But recently I've been thinking, 'What if I wasn't OK with my freaking penis being shown to everybody?' I didn't really have a choice."
Elden filed the case against the surviving members of the band, drummer Dave Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic, on Tuesday, August 24, in California's Central District Court.
Elden said that ultimately he thought it was "f**ked up" that the album was still being talked about 25 years later.
He told GQ that his opinion of the album cover took a U-turn after he reached out to Nirvana's team to ask if the band and the photographer wanted to take part in his art show, and he was referred to "to their managers and lawyers" and asked: "Why am I still on their cover if I'm not that big of a deal?"
The artist says that he does not mention the album in his everyday life because it's "not like you want to brag about your embarrassing naked photo" and that he doesn't "have much to show for it."
Elden added: "Everyone thinks you're making money from it. You'll hook up with a hot chick, and then they figure out you're not making any money from it and they'll dump you.
"You have these people who think you're cool because you're the Nirvana baby. But it's fucking weird, man. It's like that dream where you go to school without your clothes on."
As part of his lawsuit, Elden explained that his parents did not authorize "the use of any images of Spencer or of his likeness, and certainly not of commercial child pornography depicting him."
Elden said that as a result of the photograph, he has now suffered "extreme and permanent emotional distress with physical manifestations", "interference with his normal development and educational progress" and "lifelong loss of income-earning capacity."
