Photo Credit: Lindsay / CC by 2.0Dave Grohl says Nirvana may change its controversial Nevermind album cover in the future.
Universal Music Group has prepped a 30th-anniversary edition of the album – featuring the original artwork. But Spencer Elden, the baby on the cover has filed a lawsuit against the estate of the band, alleging that distributing the album amounts to “commercial child pornography.”
“Neither Spencer nor his legal guardians ever signed a release authorizing the use of any images of Spencer or of his likeness, and certainly not of commercial child pornography depicting him,” the lawsuit obtained by Digital Music News reads.
There are no changes planned for the 30th-anniversary re-release coming on November 12. But future releases are on the table.
Dave Grohl has stated that future releases of Nevermind may have different album art.
“I have many ideas of how we should alter that cover, but we’ll see what happens,” Grohl told The Sunday Times. “We’ll let you know. I’m sure we’ll come up with something good.” Grohl appears to be tired of being in the legal crosshairs over the album cover.
“At some point, unfortunately, it just becomes par for the course,” Grohl adds. “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.”
The 30th-anniversary Nevermind album cover may be the last to feature the naked baby. The Nevermind special edition features a total of 94 audio and video tracks – 70 of which are previously unreleased. A 5-CD super deluxe version of the album includes:
- The remastered album.
- Live Nirvana concerts.
- A Blu-Ray of a live Amsterdam show.
- A 40-page hardcover book full of unreleased photos.
A $260 variation comes with a seven-inch vinyl, the book, and 8 180-gram LPs of the remastered album. However, this more expensive version of the album won’t be made available to fans until May 27, 2022.
The child pornography lawsuit names not just Nirvana, but also the photographer, the album’s art director, Geffen Records, Nirvana LLC, and the estate of Kurt Cobain. Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and several other record labels are named.
