The groundbreaking Nirvana record Nevermind celebrated its 30th birthday last month. Along with the buzz from commemorating the record, other news surrounding the notorious naked baby cover continued to arise. In August, Spencer Elden, a.k.a. the naked baby, sued Nirvana’s surviving members, Kurt Cobain’s estate, album-cover photographer Kirk Weddle, and the labels involved in the album’s release, alleging sexual exploitation and that the cover is child pornography.
Dave Grohl recently discussed that Nevermind reissues could possibly bear new art, in light of the lawsuit. “I have many ideas of how we should alter that cover, but we’ll see what happens,” Grohl told The Times Magazine. “We’ll let you know. I’m sure we’ll come up with something good … 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.”
An upcoming box-set reissue of Nevermind is still planned to have the original artwork, yet Grohl hints that may change in future releases.
Elden filed the lawsuit this summer, alleging his “true identity and legal name are forever tied to the commercial sexual exploitation he experienced as a minor which has been distributed and sold worldwide from the time he was a baby to the present day.”
