Led Zep's Page, Plant deny lifting opening bars of Stairway to Heaven

Los Angeles

LED Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant appeared in court on Tuesday to deny accusations that they "lifted" the opening bars to iconic rock song Stairway to Heaven. The musicians, dressed in black suits, arrived to a throng of reporters at Los Angeles federal court, where a jury of four men and four women was played their anthemic hit.

Spirit, a psychedelic LA band that enjoyed a niche following but never attained the superstardom of Led Zeppelin, claims that the melancholic guitar that opens Stairway was taken from its instrumental track Taurus. Spirit's guitarist Randy Wolfe - who went by the nickname Randy California - never took legal action and drowned in Hawaii in 1997, but a lawsuit was filed by his trustee and friend Michael Skidmore, who was in court.