Dave Grohl Disagrees With Nirvana Baby Lawsuit – He’s Got a ‘Nevermind’ Tattoo, I Don’t
In a new interview with Vulture, Dave Grohl briefly commented on the child pornography lawsuit levied against Nirvana by Spencer Elden, who was pictured as the baby on the cover of the band's hit 1991 album, Nevermind. "Listen, he's got a Nevermind tattoo. I don't," the rocker said when brushing the subject.
Elden, who has recreated the Nevermind cover a handful of times in the past in various photoshoots, hit Nirvana with a child pornography and sexual exploitation lawsuit in late August.
He's seeking $150,000 for "permanent harm" which he claimed stemmed from "extreme and permanent emotional distress with physical manifestations, interference with his normal development and educational progress, lifelong loss of income earning capacity, loss of past and future wages, past and future expenses for medical and psychological treatment, loss of enjoyment of life, and other losses to be described and proven at trial of this matter," as stated in a portion of the lawsuit.
Although several lawyers have spoken out against the case's merit, the lawsuit was at least significant enough to prompt Grohl to consider what an alternative Nevermind cover would look like, having said earlier this month (October) that he has "many ideas" on how it can be altered.
When asked about his personal stance on Elden's lawsuit against his former band, Grohl told Vulture, "I don’t know that I can speak on it because I haven’t spent too much time thinking about it," and added, "I feel the same way most people do in that I have to disagree. That’s all I’ll say."
The interviewer then noted the instances in which Elden had recreated the album cover photo and Grohl then had one more thing to say: "Listen, he’s got a Nevermind tattoo. I don’t."
Nevermind was released on Sept. 24, 1991 and, in celebration of the album's 30th anniversary and the explosion of grunge amid a shifting rock culture, Loudwire did a deep dive on the scene, as chronicled in the ongoing '30 Years of Grunge' video series, which can be watched here.