Led Zeppelin Stairway To Heaven Trial Begins

(Classic Rock) Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page appeared in court on Tuesday (June 14th) for the start of the trial over their iconic classic track "Stairway To Heaven."

They're accused of having taken a significant part of Spirit's 1967 track Taurus and used it as the opening riff for their own song, which was released four years later.

But the hearing, before Los Angeles district judge Gary Klausner, could be cut short after the lawyer representing late Spirit guitarist Randy California apparently used evidence that had not been included in trial plans.

Francis Malofiy played a video recording of a guitarist performing the riffs in question, leading Led Zeppelin representative Peter Anderson to object. Judge Klausner said playing the video could be "grounds for a mistrial" if it hadn't been listed, but Malofiy chose to keep playing it. Read more here.

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