The best bands operate as a single unit, a true ensemble…except, it would seem, in the case of a Led Zeppelin lawsuit with blues songwriter Willie Dixon. On this occasion, the British rock four-piece took a more individualistic approach. In fact, guitarist Jimmy Page not-so-subtly blamed the suit on bandmate and frontman Robert Plant. Although, to Plant’s credit, later comments suggested the decision was a band-wide approach.
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At the very least, the entire band felt the penalties from the lawsuit they lost. As Plant would later describe it, the entire debacle was “happily paid for.”
The Led Zeppelin Lawsuit Jimmy Page Blamed On Robert Plant
Led Zeppelin achieved their first hit in the United States with “Whole Lotta Love,” which the British rock band released on their sophomore release, Led Zeppelin II. From its driving drums to signature guitar riffs to Robert Plant’s moaning, whining vocals, it’s a classic Led Zeppelin track through and through, with one notable exception: the lyrics. Those could be attributed to blues singer-songwriter Willie Dixon’s song, “You Need Love.”
After hearing “Whole Lotta Love” on the radio, Dixon’s daughter informed her father of the noticeable similarities between the Led Zeppelin track and “You Need Love,” which Muddy Waters released as a single in 1962. Dixon agreed and filed a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin in 1985, 16 years after the band first released their song. But if Dixon was expecting a lengthy legal battle, he would’ve been mistaken. Led Zeppelin quickly agreed to his accusations and settled with the bluesman outside of court.
“[Jimmy] Page’s riff was Page’s riff,” Plant later recalled in an interview with Musician. “I just thought, ‘Well, what am I going to sing?’ That was it, a nick, now happily paid for. At the time, there was a lot of conversation about what to do. It was decided that it was so far away in time and influence…well, you only get caught when you’re successful. That’s the game.”
Page had a clearer idea of who was to blame. “Robert was supposed to change the lyrics,” he claimed (via Classic Rock). “He didn’t always do that, which is what brought on most of the grief.”
Other Times, One Could Reasonably Place More Blame On Page
Led Zeppelin’s lawsuit with Willie Dixon in 1985 would not be the only legal trouble the British rock band would find themselves in over musical plagiarism. Jimmy Page was willing to throw frontman Robert Plant under the bus for not changing the lyrics to “Whole Lotta Love.” But he had less ammunition for a subsequent lawsuit that began in 2014.
The suit between Led Zeppelin and the estate of Spirit guitarist Randy Wolfe was over the former band’s iconic ballad, “Stairway to Heaven.” Michael Skidmore, an estate trustee of Wolfe, accused Led Zeppelin of ripping off Spirit’s 1968 instrumental track, “Taurus,” for their melodic guitar intro. Unlike the case of the Led Zeppelin II opening track, “Whole Lotta Love,” where Plant was quick to admit he had nicked the lyrical gist of Dixon’s song, Page rejected the notion that he purposefully ripped off Spirit for his signature guitar part. Led Zeppelin won the legal battle in 2020, much to the Spirit estate’s chagrin.
“What you have here is a big win for the multi-billion dollar industry against the creatives,” Skidmore’s lawyer, Francis Malofiy, told Rolling Stone. “I love Led Zeppelin as a man. I can separate my appreciation for them as four band members playing amazing music. But they’re the greatest art thieves of all time, and they got away with it again today. They won on a technicality. But they absolutely stole that piece of work.”
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