Although Stairway to Heaven is widely regarded as one of the greatest rock songs of all time (which also contains one of the best guitar solos), the British band Led…
Led Zeppelin has won a longstanding copyright battle over the iconic song Stairway to Heaven in one of the most high-profile plagiarism cases in the music industry. The copyright dispute was filed in 2014 by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for late guitarist and songwriter Randy Wolfe, who performed in the US band Spirit. According to the lawsuit, Skidmore accused Led Zeppelin of stealing the opening riff of Stairway to Heaven from Spirit’s song Taurus, which was released three years earlier. Lawyers for Rand Wolfe’s estate argued that Led Zeppelin’s singer Robert Plant, one of the songwriters of Stairway to Heaven, became familiar with Taurus after he attended a Spirit’s gig in 1970 and even played snooker with the band’s bassist.
