EMBROILED in a tense legal battle over Stairway To Heaven’s opening riff, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has testified to refute the claims that he stole it.
Based on allegations that the band had stolen the track’s iconic acoustic-led strains from American rock band Spirit, the legendary group are being sued by the estate of the band’s late songwriter Randy Wolfe.
Pleading his innocence for two hours, Page insisted that he wasn’t aware of Spirit’s track ‘Taurus’; the song in question which they’re alleged to have adopted the riff from, and only obtained knowledge of its existence after comparison videos began to surface online.
Speaking at length, the musician claimed that ‘”I knew I had never heard that before, It was totally alien to me.When it started, I was confused by the comparison… [I thought] ‘What’s this got to do with Stairway?”
However, a vast amount of the court date’s duration was dominated by the fact that Led Zeppelin’s 1969 live debut in the US saw them share a bill with Spirit.
With Wolfe’s bandmate Mark Andes maintaining that Spirit played ‘Taurus’ at the show in question, Page has claimed that he was unaware of the band’s presence on the bill by stating “I didn’t think I was opening for Spirit; I thought I was opening for Vanilla Fudge.”
Both frontman Robert Plant and bassist John Paul Jones are expected to provide their testimony at the trial although Jones has been dismissed as a defendant in the case. The plaintiff is reportedly seeking royalties to the sum of $40 million
Check out a guitar comparison video which details both the similarities and differences between the two compositions below:
