“Stairway to Heaven” will get another hearing, this time to a packed house.
A panel of 11 judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Monday to hear Led Zeppelin’s appeal in a copyright lawsuit alleging the group stole its 1971 rock epic from an obscure 1960s instrumental.
In a 2016 trial that included testimony from Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant, a jury found that “Stairway to Heaven” did not significantly resemble the song “Taurus,” written by the late Randy Wolfe and performed by his band Spirit.
Page said he wrote the music for the song and Plant the lyrics, and that both were original.
But in September, a three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit ruled that the judge at the trial had failed to advise the jury properly, and ordered a new trial. The judges unanimously found that the trial judge was wrong to tell jurors that individual elements of a song such as its notes or scale may not qualify for copyright protection, because a combination of those elements may qualify if they are sufficiently original.
Led Zeppelin’s lawyers moved to the next level of appeal, asking for the larger group of judges to rehear the case, and the request was granted. The 11-judge panel will hear the case in late September in San Francisco.
Altitude has boarded as international sales agent an as-yet-untitled Led Zeppelin feature documentary, directed by Bernard MacMahon, best-known for “American Epic.” CAA will represent the U.S. rights. The film will be shopped at Cannes.
The release of the doc, now in post-production, will coincide with the band’s 50th anniversary. It traces the journeys of the four members through the music scene of the 1960s, their meeting in the summer of 1968, and culminates in 1970 when their second album knocks the Beatles off the top of the charts.
It includes new interviews with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones, as well as rare archival interviews with the late John Bonham. It is the first time the band has participated in a documentary since it was formed.
Two weeks ago, Jason Bonham went on The Howard Show and relayed a memory about Jimmy Page introducing him to cocaine when he was 16. "We got called to his room," Bonham claimed. "And there was a woman on the floor with a collar on, meowing, and he had this grinder thing and he turned it over and he went, 'Here you go,' and I went, 'Thanks.' He's like, 'You've done this before, right?' And I'm like, 'Yeah, of course I have.' So he handed it over and I just did all of it, and he went, 'Just like your father - y'know, that was supposed to be for all of us.'"
But now Bonham is saying that the story is untrue. "In that interview I made certain untrue and derogatory statements concerning Mr James Page of the legendary band Led Zeppelin," he wrote in a message on his website. "I unconditionally retract all derogatory and defamatory comments relating to Mr J Page that I made in that interview. In particular it is wholly untrue that Mr J Page offered me any illegal substances either when I was a minor or at all."
He continued: "I apologize to Mr Page, unreservedly, for making these unfounded and untrue comments about him. Out of my long held respect for Mr Page I will make no further comments on the interview and I agree to make no further comments which Mr Page might view as disparaging, either now or in the future." (Page did not immediately reply to a request for comment.)
Bonham drummed for Led Zeppelin during their 1988 appearance at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert, his own wedding in 1990 and at their 2007 show at London's 02 Arena. The latter was their first full set since the death of his father and the band's original drummer John in 1980. It led to rumors about a full-scale reunion tour, but Robert Plant pulled the plug on the idea.
"A tour would have been an absolute menagerie of vested interests and the very essence of everything that's shitty about big-time stadium rock," Plant told Rolling Stone in 2014. "We were surrounded by a circus of people that would have had our souls on the fire. I'm not part of a jukebox!"
In 2010, Jason Bonham began playing the group's music under the banner Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience. They now tour as Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Evening.
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This Month in
Led Zeppelin History
July xx, 1969 - The band play many festivals now on their third American tour
July xx, 1970 - Additional recording for Led Zeppelin III at London’s Island Studios
July 16, 1970 - Photographer Chris Welch films Led Zeppelin on his 8mm camera, some clips later used in the Whole Lotta Love promo video
