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NEWSMAKERS

Jimmy Page takes stand in Led Zeppelin copyright trial

LOS ANGELES

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page testified Wednesday that until a few years ago, he’d never heard a song that the megastar band is accused of ripping off for “Stairway to Heaven.”

“Something like that would stick in my mind. It was totally alien to me,” Page said of the instrumental song, “Taurus,” by the band Spirit.

A lawyer for the estate of Spirit’s late guitarist, Randy California, contends that the famous descending-chord guitar riff that begins 1971’s “Stairway” was lifted from the Spirit tune, which was released a few years earlier.

An eight-member jury is hearing the copyright- infringement case in federal court.

Jurors must decide whether the two sequences are substantially similar.

Earlier in the day, former Spirit member Mark Andes testified that riffs from both songs, played by an acoustic guitarist on a video aired in court, were the same.

Musical experts not involved in the case have said the sequence is common and has appeared in other pieces from decades and even centuries ago.

Zeppelin singer RobertPlant and bandmate John Paul Jones are expected to testify at the trial, though Jones has been dismissed as a defendant in the case.

Associated Press