Court Overturns Led Zeppelin​ 'Stairway To Heaven' Ruling

LOS ANGELES, CA — A federal appeals court panel Friday overturned a 2016 ruling that let classic rock band Led Zeppelin off the hook in a lawsuit alleging the band stole the opening riff of the smash hit Stairway to Heaven" from an obscure tune by the defunct Southland band Spirit.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial, ruling that the jury instructions in the 2016 trial were "erroneous and prejudicial." The ruling puts millions of dollars and the rights to one most recognizable songs in rock history at stake.

A Los Angeles jury had determined in 2016 that there wasn't enough evidence to support the case of the late Spirit songwriter/guitarist Randy Wolfe, known as Randy California, that the guitar intro to "Stairway" was lifted from Spirit's 1968 instrumental "Taurus." However, the appeals court faults the judge in the original trial for that, finding that the trial judge "prejudicially erred by failing to instruct the jury that the selection and arrangement of unprotectable musical elements are protectable. Second, the district court prejudicially erred in its instructions on originality."

The jury should have been allowed to hear recordings of `Taurus' to demonstrate that Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant had access to the song. Both men attended many of the court hearings during the original trial and both testified in the case.

An attorney for Wolfe's estate argued during the case that Page and Plant should be held accountable for millions of dollars in royalties for having "lifted" a brief musical passage from "Taurus" more than 45 years ago and using it as the introduction to their rock epic "Stairway to Heaven."

Plaintiff's attorney Francis Malofiy contended during the trial that Page and Plant crossed paths with Spirit while on the road and were familiar with the Los Angeles band's music, particularly the group's album track "Taurus," which the lawyer claims became the basis for the 2-minute, 14- second acoustic-guitar intro to "Stairway."

But Peter Anderson, attorney for Page and Plant, countered that the delicately descending pattern is a commonplace "musical building block" that is in the public domain and thus not legally protectable.

Anderson told jurors the plaintiff never proved that Page and Plant were familiar with "Taurus" or that Page and Plant had ever heard Spirit perform in the few times the bands shared a concert bill in 1968 and 1969.

Anderson said the "descending chromatic scale" played by Page in the first moments of "Stairway" is merely a musical device, so common and unoriginal that "it belongs to everyone."

City News Service and Patch staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report; British rock band Led Zeppelin. From left to right, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham (1947 - 1980), John Paul Jones. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)