Thirty years ago, when he was four months old, Spencer Elden was photographed for what became one of the most famous album covers of all time. That image of Elden, with the addition of a $20 bill on a fishhook, became iconic when Nirvana’s Nevermind went on to sell millions of copies worldwide. But now the adult Spencer Elden is suing Cobain’s estate and the other members of the band claiming the image was child porn.

Elden, who’s 30, on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles federal court against a host of defendants tied to the album, alleging the cover is “sexual exploitation” that will hurt him — emotionally and physically — for the rest of his life.

Those defendants include Nirvana LLC, several of its members, the estate of frontman Kurt Cobain, the designer and photographer involved in creating the cover, and the record label that released the album. None of them responded to emails sent from The Washington Post late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

The suit alleges that all were involved in making child pornography and benefited from “the sex-trafficking venture and Spencer’s exploitation” that was the distribution of “Nevermind.”

“[They] used child pornography depicting Spencer … in a sexually provocative manner to gain notoriety, drive sales, and garner media attention,” the lawsuit states. Elden is represented by Robert Y. Lewis, a New York-based attorney.

There doesn’t seem to be any doubt that Cobain was directly involved in the idea for the cover image. He was inspired by a video on underwater births. When those images were considered too graphic a photographer was hired to take pictures of babies underwater at a pool in Pasadena. Cobain and the band selected the image of Elden and added the fishhook and the money digitally. NBC News notes, “The cover was widely considered a rebuke of capitalism.”

So 30 years later it seems life is imitating art and Elden is really making a grab for the cash. His family was paid $250 for the photo at the time it was taken. The photographer was a friend of the family. As recently as five years ago, Elden was happy to recreate the cover shot. In fact he’s recreated it at least 3 times before the lawsuit was filed:

Once upon a time…#SpencerElden #Nirvana #nevermind pic.twitter.com/oRlIyGJJCy

— The Real Ben Harper (@TheRealBHarper) August 25, 2021

There are already folks pointing out that, with this lawsuit, the album cover has turned into a kind of prophecy. I guess there’s some truth to that but I think the more striking point is that the band which apparently created this image as a criticism of capitalism didn’t share the wealth once the millions rolled in. Is the real story here that Elden is doing what the album cover showed or is it that the band is now an LLC and an estate worth millions trying to keep him from doing it.

Maybe if Cobain were still around he’d see the irony and just offer Elden some money. That would be more consistent with the criticism the cover was meant to imply. Instead, I suspect we’re going to see an army of lawyers come forward to defend the band’s earnings, which kind of puts a different spin on who was on the other end of that fishing line with the money attached.

Personally, I never really cared much about Nirvana. Kurt Cobain was obviously troubled and it’s sad he didn’t get the help he needed. But Dave Grohl comes across as one of the best people in the music business. I like some of his songs but I also like some of the things he does, from bringing fans up on stage to play guitar during his concerts to having drum battles with talented kids (in which he eventually concedes defeat). Grohl just seems like a genuinely good person. So while I don’t really care about Nirvana or their legacy, part of me hopes Grohl will step in and try to resolve this just because it would probably be easy for him to do. But I’m sure he has lawyers telling him not to say a word.