DEFENSE RESTS IN LED ZEPPELIN TRIAL

Robert Plant does not remember the people he hung out with while Led Zeppelin was touring, but he’s pretty clear about the night he and guitarist Jimmy Page started to write “Stairway to Heaven.”

"One evening, Jimmy Page and I sat by the fire going over bits and pieces," Plant testified in a Los Angeles courtroom, fighting the assertion that the two had lifted a guitar part from Spirit’s “Taurus.”

They worked on “Stairway,” “Misty Mountain Hop” and “Battle of Evermore.” After Page played some riffs, Plant went into another room and started to write lyrics inspired by the "pastoral areas of Britain I love," he said.

Jurors, who are expected to deliberate today, heard demo recordings of the song, and listened to Page describe how he assembled the pieces on the nearly eight-minute song. The demo recording was in a different key than the final version.

The estate of Spirit’s late leader Randy California claims the opening riff of the 1968 song “Taurus” is fundamentally the same as the opening to “Stairway to Heaven.” Prosecutors have argued that bands crossed paths—and hung out together—when they played on the same bill in 1970 in Birmingham, England.

“I don't have a recollection of almost anyone I've hung out with," Plant said. "I can't actually recall Spirit or anyone playing there with the passing of time."