7 Times Rock Bands Were Sued By Album Cover Models

One of the biggest controversies in rock music this year has been the lawsuit against Nirvana by Spencer Elden, who’s depicted as a baby on the cover of the band’s 1991 album Nevermind. But, this isn’t the first time a band has found themselves in this type of situation.

There have actually been a ton of lawsuits against bands over album artwork throughout musical history, but for the sake of keeping things related to the case of Nirvana and Elden, we’re focusing on the ones that were filed against bands by the people, or models, who’re actually featured on the covers.

Perhaps one of the most famous examples is The Rolling Stones’ 1978 album Some Girls, which marked their transition toward disco and funk rock, and also originally had some very famous faces on the cover in addition to the band members. The group of women and their family members sued the Stones, who ultimately decided to put out a different version of the cover with only the musicians’ faces instead.

“On the original album there were old-fashioned film stars, but because we were stupid and never got permission from them, we got stopped a lot from using them,” Mick Jagger later told Yahoo! of the artwork.

That’s a situation where the band didn’t actually ask permission to use the images, which is the same for several others on our list as well. However, Elden’s case is unique in that his parents were the ones who gave the band consent to use his photo on Nevermind, as he was only a baby during the photoshoot.

However, he has celebrated the album cover in recent years, so a lot of eyebrows were raised when the news broke that he was now claiming that the photo is child pornography. Especially because, as Dave Grohl pointed out, he has a Nevermind tattoo.

To find out more about other similar cases, scroll through our gallery below.