Wolfe’s trustee, Michael Skidmore, filed the case in 2015 on behalf of his late friend who long maintained he deserved credit for “Stairway” but drowned in 1997 having never taken legal action over the song. The case is “remanded for a new trial,” the higher court panel ruled Friday in a 37-page decision supporting Skidmore’s appeal. Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, sued along with the group’s singer Robert Plant and another surviving band mate, John Paul Jones, testified in 2016 that the chord sequence in question had “been around forever.”Led Zeppelin’s Plant, Page to face ‘Stairway to Heaven’ trialPage and Plant denied plagiarism. “Stairway” is estimated to have grossed $3.4 million during a five-year period at issue in the earlier civil trial. Zeppelin opened for Spirit when the British rockers made their US debut on December 26, 1968, in Denver.

Source: The Express Tribune September 29, 2018 15:45 UTC