LOS ANGELES (AP) – Led Zeppelin founder Jimmy Page faces tough questioning in a trial over whether the band stole a riff for the opening of “Stairway to Heaven.”
Page is to resume testimony Thursday in Los Angeles federal court in a dispute over the copyright to the Spirit song, “Taurus.”
Page says he never heard the instrumental tune on Spirit’s first album and didn’t realize he owned a copy of it until he learned that comparisons with “Stairway” were cropping up online.
Page says his band did borrow a riff from another Spirit tune in the early days of the band when it didn’t have a lot of material and relied heavily on cover songs.
Page says he only knew Spirit’s song “Fresh Garbage” because he heard it on the radio.