The baby on the Nirvana album cover is suing.
He claims he “has suffered and will continue to suffer lifelong damages” as a result of the artwork, including “extreme and permanent emotional distress” as well as “interference with his normal development and educational progress” and “medical and psychological treatment”.
He is asking for damages of at least $150,000 (£109,000) from each of the 15 defendants, who include surviving band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic; the managers of Kurt Cobain’s estate; Cobain’s former wife Courtney Love; and photographer Kirk Weddle.
So the usual grift then, because I don’t believe this twaddle. Bear in mind that he has recreated the image in photo shoots commemorating various anniversaries, so wasn’t too fussed about the exposure.
“It’s hard not to get upset when you hear how much money was involved,” he continued. “[When] I go to a baseball game and think about it: ‘Man, everybody at this baseball game has probably seen my little baby penis,’ I feel like I got part of my human rights revoked.”
That is the nub if it. Money. Models get paid for the shoot. That the photographer or others might subsequently make more is just the way it is. The whining about people seeing his baby genitals is a distraction and an excuse to try to screw some moolah. I hope the court leaves him with a massive legal bill.
“He feels that everybody made money off it and he didn’t,” the photographer said. “I think he deserves something. But it’s always the record labels that make the money.”
No, he doesn’t. His family agreed a fee at the time. That’s it. End of.
Can’t say that I’ve ever worried over people seeing my tool. They have segregated changing rooms at the gym so there are always men walking around naked. I’m always slightly bemused by the minority of guys who go to elaborate lengths with a towel to avoid flashing their particles and bare bum, as if the rest of us are remotely interested.
Yes and you’re right about this guy, he’s just a scammer.
A lifetime in the mining industry has made me completely at ease wandering around naked and showering in front of other men (the NCB pits typically had chest high cubicles, but most other mines have open shower areas. As a young, 18 year old southerner, it came as quite a shock the first time an old miner walked into my cubicle holding a sponge. No words were exchanged, he handed me the sponge, turned his back and the penny dropped that he wanted me to wash a shift’s worth of coal dust off of it.
They tend to be a bunch of arty farty types over at Bored Panda, they often take the opposite side to the likes of you and I on contentious issues but not this time.
https://www.boredpanda.com/nevermind-cover-baby-suing-nirvana/?cexp_id=42507&cexp_var=5&_f=featured&utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
That was my take on it too; trying to grab some dosh, cos he can, or at leat thinks he can
With luck, the judge will throw it out and if not the judge, the jury. This is straightforward grifting.
I think the flag which really signals grift is the amount involved. I mean, just over £100k for nearly 30 years of lost earnings and trauma (in the claim)? It’s probably smaller than Nirvana’s legal fees will be – and that’s the point; he’s making it cheaper to pay him off than fight it. I also think it’s probable that he was coaxed into it by some ambulance chasing reptile.
It’s in Nirvana’s interests to call his bluff.
Did anyone know the name of the baby on the cover before he told us all?
No and who cares? The arsehole is trying to milk it for all it’s worth.
Yes, he’s an idiot if he’s trying to say his life was ruined when nobody knew it was him throughout his life until he decided to tell the world….he hasn’t a leg to stand on.
My memory may be confused (I was there, though likely a little compromised), but IIRC Nirvana appeared at the Reading festival ’91, low down in the order on the Friday. Basically a moderately known, garage band from t’other side of the pond. I think they did Rock City, Nottingham in the same year, I imagine to promote the release of Nevermind in December of the same year.
Given their relative obscurity at the time, the 400/500$ (have heard different reports) the photographer paid the model (or the model’s parents), seems fair, maybe even generous given this is 30 years ago. These were indie bands after all, in this country far from easily accessible. Not sure of popularity the other side of the pond though. Was it a friend of the photographer, that seems to be stuck in the brain? Subsequently they headline in ’92 (I was there also).
Had they been Pink Floyd popular at the time, you’re unlikely to get much more for an unknown model for a single session. Any major band (or agency/photographer) would laugh at unknown models demanding excessive fees in respect of advance success, models are abundant. Moderately attractive babies even more so, ugliness sets in much later.
Personally I would think it interesting were it me, could certainly lever that for a few quid. Apparently Mr Nevermind didn’t have the nous to do so and is disappointed with his return from his grift a few years earlier.
Maybe if he’d tried to more accurately represent the cover in his naked form, he’d have had more success but perhaps wasn’t prepared to have the world pass judgment.
I think Justin has probably nailed, wants a couple hundred grand to piss off.