Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant ‘can’t remember’ watching band who accuse him of stealing Stairway to Heaven riff
Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant has told a court a serious car crash left him with no memory of watching the band accusing him of copying their song to compose Stairway to Heaven.
The frontman and guitarist Jimmy Page are being sued in a copyright dispute brought by the American band Spirit, who claim the classic 1971 hit was ‘lifted’ from their instrumental track Taurus.
A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Spirit guitarist Randy Wolfe – known as Randy California – who drowned in 1997 having never taken legal action over the song.
Plant, 67, told the federal court in Los Angeles that he could not remember watching Spirit at Birmingham’s Mothers club in 1970 after he was involved in a serious car crash with his wife that night.
‘I can’t recall Spirit or anybody else playing there with the passing of time,’ he said.
‘I don’t have a recollection of mostly anyone I’ve met,’ Plant added, prompting laughter in the courtroom.
The veteran rock star told the court his wife suffered a fractured skull in the crash.
‘Part of the windshield buried in the top of my head, which was interesting,’ he said. ‘I don’t remember a thing.’
Plant, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and tie, with his hair tied back in a ponytail, told the jury he could not remember playing snooker with a member of Spirit after the gig at Mothers club.
‘I did have a bad car accident,’ he said. ‘I don’t remember seeing Spirit. I don’t remember playing snooker.’
Spirit bassist Mark Andes said he played a game with Plant after the show, but the singer questioned how he could be expected to remember one man he has not seen in 40 years.
Plant did remember how he wrote the lyrics to Stairway To Heaven, after Page had played some of the song to him at the country manor house Headley Grange in Hampshire.
‘That particularly evening I sat with Jimmy by the fire,’ he told the court.
‘He began playing. I had these couple of lyrics which fit with what he was playing.
‘I was trying to bring in the beauty and remoteness of pastoral Britain.
‘It developed into something I could not imagine.’
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