LED ZEPPELIN “Stairway To Heaven” Hearing Set For August 17th
August 2, 2015, 9 years ago
Westsidetoday.com is reporting that a hearing is set for August 17th in Los Angeles federal court for a copyright-infringement lawsuit involving Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” according to court papers obtained Friday.
In May surviving Led Zeppelin stars Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones filed a response to the lawsuit claiming that “Stairway To Heaven” was stolen from an obscure song by the band Spirit. In the paperwork, Page, Plant and Jones admit to having played a concert with Spirit, and to using part of the Spirit song “Fresh Garbage” in a medley they performed during some concerts in 1968 and 1969. Led Zeppelin “deny each and every allegation" in the lawsuit. The band is being sued by Michael Skidmore, the trustee for trust of Spirit frontman Randy Craig Wolfe, who performed under the name Randy California and died in 1997.
In the liner notes to a 1996 reissue of Spirit’s first album, California wrote that “people always ask me why ‘Stairway to Heaven’ sounds exactly like ‘Taurus,’ which was released two years earlier. They opened up for us on their first American tour.”
Warner Music Group successfully argued in May that the case should be moved to Los Angeles, where possible witnesses and business records are located.
