Spencer Elden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2008) (Find sources: Spencer Elden – news, books, scholar) |
.jpg)
Spencer Elden (born July 9, 1991) is the baby / model who appeared on the iconic cover of Nirvana's album Nevermind. Nirvana's record company had considered using a stock photograph of a swimming baby, but when that proved too expensive they hired photographer Kirk Weddle.[citation needed] Weddle's friends Renata and Rick Elden allowed their son Spencer to be photographed underwater for a flat fee of $200. [1] The hook, line, and dollar were superimposed at a later point.[citation needed] After seeing the photo, Kurt Cobain (Nirvana's lead singer) and his wife Courtney Love agreed that they would take Spencer out to dinner when he got older[2]. However, this never happened due to Cobain's death in 1994.
In 2001, Elden re-created the Nirvana album shot for Rolling Stone magazine, for Nevermind's tenth-anniversary.[3] Elden has since appeared on the cover of cEvin Key’s The Dragon Experience in 2003.[4]
In 2005, the then 14 year old Spencer Elden appeared on the documentary DVD Classic Albums: Nirvana - Nevermind. He also appeared on a (UK) Channel 4 show titled The 100 Greatest Albums and revealed his interpretation of the imagery used on the album cover, which was that it was all about the loss of innocence.[citation needed]
In a September 2006 interview with NME, Elden expressed his interest in meeting up with the remaining band members.
On August 16, 2007, in reference to the fact that his penis was visible on the album cover, Elden stated that he felt like a porn star: "It's kind of creepy that that many people have seen me naked. I feel like I'm the world's biggest porn star."[5]
On July 23, 2008, NPR's All Things Considered aired an interview with Elden. It was filmed shortly before his graduation from high school in Los Angeles, California.[6]
Elden is an artist, as well as fan of the work of Shepard Fairey; he currently works as an intern at Fairey's Obey Giant studio.[7]
He was paid $1,000 to recreate the famous cover, in 2008[8].
[edit] References
- ^ MTV.com
- ^ Nardwuar vs. Nirvana — an interview by Nardwuar, taken on Jan. 4, 1994;
- ^ Nirvana: 10 years after Nevermind — Rolling Stone article;
- ^ Nirvana Baby Resurfaces — Rolling Stone.
- ^ Porn star status for Nirvana boy — Herald Sun.
- ^ Once Naked for Nirvana, Now a Teen Spirit. - NPR
- ^ Shepard Fairey, Welcome Spencer Elden!, ObeyGiant.com, December 2, 2008, Accessed December 9, 2008.
- ^ "Naked 'Nirvana baby' still chasing dollars". CNN.com. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/12/11/nirvana.baby/index.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-11.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
